LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Chap. Cop yriofi t JN'o. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PANDITA RAMABAI: 

The Story of Her Life 



PANDITA RAMABAI 

The Story of Her Life 



BY 



HELEN S. DYER 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature 



64369 

]-lbPtu y of Cengr««tt 

"^Vfo C'jptEs Received 
OCT 22 1900 



^iO'm COPY. 

OaOW DIVISION, 
NOV 20 1900 



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-ot^"^ 



Copyright 1900 
by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



INTRODUCTION 

TOWARDS the close of the eighteenth century, 
when books were few, a remarkable volume en- 
titled " Monumental Pillars," was published for 
English Christians. It was compiled from authentic 
records of the Lord's dealings in providence and grace 
with individual Christians; of summary justice meted 
out to those who had blasphemed His name ; of wonder- 
ful dreams and their fulfilment ; of preservation of life 
through following the inner guidance of the Spirit 
of God; and similar testimonies tending to show the 
direct individual methods of God with the children of 
men, and of the absolute certainty of a particular provi- 
dential care over their lives. 

The story told in the following pages will show how 
the Lord, having a purpose of grace towards the down- 
trodden widows of India, has raised up one of that 
despised class to erect a " Monumental Pillar '' to His 
name. The whole may be designated as a Record of 
Answered Prayers and Fulfilled Promises. Ramabai 
could adopt the language of Eliezer of old, and say, 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION 

" I being in the way, the Lord led me." The human 
part of the work has been persevering faith and obe- 
dience ; and as God dehghts to honour faith, the bless- 
ing has come, and the work has grown. 

When, in the providence of God, my husband was 
obliged to relinquish the work in India in which we 
had been engaged for more than ten years, it was im- 
pressed upon my mind that the Lord would have us do 
something in England for Ramabai. This book has 
been written in response to that impression. 

We know also that Ramabai covets the prayers of 
God's people. It has therefore been on our hearts to 
do something to bring this work more definitely be- 
fore the Lord's remembrancers. Ramabai is intensely 
desirous that all the glory should be given to God. In 
a recent letter she writes : " I do not want to be in this 
place, or have anything to do in connection with it, un- 
less the Lord wants me to be here. It is all His work, 
and He will take care of it. He is giving me joy, and 
grace, and strength, for the work day by day. I want 
you to pray very much for me, that I may be kept 
very humble and close to Christ." She says that she 
has had it on her mind to ask Christian people to form 
prayer circles specially to pray for the salvation of In- 
dia's twenty-three millions of widows. She believes 
that if two or three believing ones would meet together 
and agree upon this subject, and pray specially for it, 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the Lord would answer their prayer, and qualify those 
whom she is training to go out in increasing numbers 
with the Gospel message. In a letter I received from 
her, in reference to this, she says : " I shall be glad 
indeed if a Prayer Circle be organized in England, and 
the Lord permitting, for you to take a leading part in 
organizing it. I tried to get some friends to do it when 
I was in England in 1898; but it was not the Lord's 
will then to let the plan be carried out. I am awaiting 
His time and orders, and leave everything to Him." 

After much prayerful consideration we have therefore 
launched the 

Sisters of India Prayer Union, 

to include first of all the work for India's daughters in 
the hands of Pandita Ramabai, and any other work of 
faith and labour of love carried on by the women of 
India for the salvation of their own people. 

I shall be glad to send further particulars to any 
who may write to me. 

Helen S. Dyer. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction • ^ 

CHAPTER I 

The Child of the Forest; An Orphan; A Pilgrim; A 
Wife; And a Widow ii 

CHAPTER n 

The Hindu Widow Begins Her Life-work: Lessons 

Learned in England and America 30 

CHAPTER HI 

Dreams Become Reality; The School for High-caste 
Widows Established in India 38 

CHAPTER IV 

A Visit to the " Sharada Sadan," and a Glimpse at Some 
of its Pupils 47 

CHAPTER V 

Some of Ramabai's Pupils Become Christians ; Opposition 
and Persecution 57 

CHAPTER VI 
The Marble Halls of Hinduism 66 

CHAPTER VII 
Plans for the Future; Ramabai's Spiritual Experiences. . T7 

9 



lo CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

Asking Great Things of God 91 

CHAPTER IX 
The Famine of 1897, and the Rescue of Starving Widows 100 

CHAPTER X 
"Mukti" — the New Settlement at Khedgaon 113 

CHAPTER XI 
Material Progress and Spiritual Advancement 129 

CHAPTER XII 
Rescue Work During the Famine of 1900 145 



PANDITA RAMABAI: 

The Story of Her Life 

CHAPTER I. 

THE CHILD OF THE FOREST ; AN ORPHAN ; A PILGRIM ; 
A wife; and a WIDOW. 

" God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
the things which are mighty ; and base things of the world, 
and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and 
things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 
that no flesh should glory in His presence." — I Cor. i. 
27-29. 

AN eloquent commentary on these inspired words 
may be found in the life and work of Pandita 
Ramabai. For in her " God hath chosen " a 
weak Indian widow to do mighty works in His great 
name. An emancipated member of a class of women held 
in the bondage of idolatry and superstition for ages, 
Ramabai, having found light, liberty, and salvation for 
herself, seeks the same for her fellow-widows, her race, 
and her country. Measurably in sight of a comfortable 
Government appointment — the Eldorado of thousands 

II 



12 PANDITA RAMABAI 

in India — she gave it up, in the prospect of devoting 
herself to the uplifting and enlightening of Hindu 
widows. 

It is characteristic of Ramabai that she works with 
all her heart and soul for the highest ideal she knows ; 
and as soon as more light dawns upon her, she leaves 
the things that are behind, and reaches out to that 
which opens up in the vista of the future. This thought 
explains the developments of her work and plans dur- 
ing the past years, and prepares those who know her 
well for further surprising developments in the future. 

If Ramabai's work has not patterned itself after the 
exact ideal set out in her mind when she returned to 
India in 1887 — to begin a school that should open the 
paths of knowledge to young widows in such a way 
that they should not have to dread the loss of their 
ancestral religion — it has been prosecuted according to 
the pattern revealed to her " in the Mount." ^ 
While still holding open a door to a liberal education to 
the high caste Hindu widow, without causing her to 
break her caste, Ramabai has herself become the mov- 
ing spirit in an aggressive. Evangelistic, and Indus- 
trial Mission. 

To sketch the developments of this work as per- 
sonally observed by the writer, is the object of these 
chapters; but an outline of the life-story of this re- 

*Heb. viii. 5- 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 13 

markable woman is necessary for those unacquainted 
with her history. 

There are factors in making Ramabai the woman 
she is which date back to forty years before her birth, 
when her father, Ananta Shastri, a student at Poona, 
was witness of the (to him) astonishing fact that a 
woman could be taught to read and recite Sanskrit. 
His tutor was also tutor to one of the princesses in the 
household of the Royal Peishwa; and Ananta Shastri 
made up his mind that knowledge was an excellent 
thing for a woman as well as for a man, and that his 
wife should be taught to read also. In due time he re- 
turned to his ancestral home in the Mangalore district ; 
but his bride and his mother both opposed his efforts 
to teach the former, and he was obliged to relinquish 
the plan. 

Years passed ; his family grew up, his wife died, and 
he set out on pilgrimage. From a fellow-pilgrim with 
daughters he obtained a fine little girl of nine years 
for his second wife, took her home and delivered her 
to his mother, as usual, for domestic training, but as- 
serted his right to teach the child to read. Continual 
opposition caused him to realize that this experiment 
was likely to fail also ; so he took his wife and started 
off into the forest, where a rude home was made. The 
child-wife was tenderly cared for, but sedulously 
taught; so that in the process of years, when woman- 



14 PANDITA RAMABAI 

hood and the cares of family life came on, it was her 
voice that taught the sacred learning of the Brahmins 
to the children of the family. The father was revered 
as a holy as well as a learned man, and pilgrims and 
students flocked into his forest home. Ramabai ven- 
erates the memory of her father, believing that, like 
Cornelius, the old Brahmin scholar was one of the 
class whom Peter confessed to be " accepted " with 
God.^ 

It was in this forest home that Ramabai's childhood 
was spent; and among her earliest recollections are 
those of being awakened in the early mornings by a 
loving mother to hear and repeat her lessons. Her 
love of reading was from a child remarkable. San- 
skrit, in which all the classics of Hinduism are writ- 
ten, was to her as her mother tongue. The ponderous 
volumes which form the scriptures of Hinduism were 
all accessible to her, and she became familiar with their 
contents and doctrines. At twelve years of age she 
had committed to memory eighteen thousand verses 
from the Puranas. This religious learning forms the 
highest education of the Brahmin or priestly caste, to 
which Ramabai's family belonged. She says that 
though she was not formally taught Marathi, yet hear- 
ing her parents speak it, and being in the habit of 
reading newspapers and books in that language, she 

*Acts X, 35. 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 15 

acquired a correct knowledge of it. In the same man- 
ner when travelHng about she acquired also a knowl- 
edge of Kanarese, Hindustani, and Bengali. In fact, 
she may be said to have a knowledge of all those dia- 
lects of India which are based on the Sanskrit, the 
sacred language of the East. With her parents and 
brother all enthusiasts in Brahminic learning, and 
pioneers in the education of women, it was no wonder 
that Ramabai's remarkable talents were cultivated, till 
she became, under their instruction, a "prodigy of 
erudition.*' 

I have before me a photograph taken in Bombay be- 
tween thirty and forty years ago. It is a copy of an 
old daguerreotype, a family group. The father, an 
aged man ; the mother, a comely woman under thirty ; 
a boy and a girl in their teens ; and Ramabai, a little 
maiden of seven, nestling at her mother's side. Their 
Spartan adherence to all Hindu customs was well illus- 
trated by this journey to Bombay. They came from 
the Malabar coast by sea in a country vessel, and not 
a morsel of food or a drop of water passed the lips 
of one of them while on the journey, which lasted three 
days— Ramabai remembers them keenly now, as days 
of misery. 

The poverty that overtook the family in Ramabai's 
early teens was partly caused by the open house kept 
for so many years for pilgrims and students; and then 



J 5 PANDITA RAMABAI 

came the beginnings of the terrible famine which cul- 
minated in South India in 1876-77, but which, Ramabai 
says, was keenly felt by many three years before. The 
share of the ancestral land, to which her brother was 
heir, was sold, with his consent, to pay the family 
debts, and the family went on pilgrimage. How they 
parted with all their money, jewels, and valuables in 
the vain hope of propitiating the gods and securing a 
return of fortune's favours, Ramabai has pathetically 
told in her " Famine Experiences," as follows :-— 

" My recollections carry me back to the hard times 
some twenty-two years ago. The last great famine 
of Madras presidency reached its climax in the years 
1876-77, but it began at least three years before that 
time. I was in my teens then, and so thoroughly igno- 
rant of the outside world that I cannot remember ob- 
serving the condition of other people, yet saw enough 
of distress in our own and a few other families to rea- 
lize the hard-heartedness of unchanged human nature. 

" High caste and respectable poor families, who are 
not accustomed to hard labour and pauperism, suffered 
then, as they do now, more than the poorer classes. 
My own people, among many others, fell victims to 
the terrible famine. We had known better days. My 
father was a land-holder and an honoured Pandit,* and 
had acquired wealth by his learning. But by-and-by, 
*A learned man or teacher. 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 17 

when he became old and infirm and blind in the last 
days of his earthly life, he lost all the property in one 
way or another. My brother, sister, and myself, had 
no secular education to enable us to earn our liveli- 
hood by better work than manual labour. We had all 
the sacred learning necessary to lead an honest religious 
life, but the pride of caste and superior learning and 
vanity of life prevented our stooping down to acquire 
some industry whereby we might have saved the pre- 
cious lives of our parents. 

" In short, we had no common sense, and foolishly 
spent all the money we had in hand in giving alms to 
Brahmins to please the gods, who, we thought, would 
send a shower of gold mohurs upon us and make us 
rich and happy. We went to several sacred places and 
temples, to worship different gods and to bathe in 
sacred rivers and tanks to free ourselves from sin and 
curse, which brought poverty on us. We prostrated 
ourselves before the stone and metal images of the 
gods, and prayed to them day and night ; the burden of 
our prayer being that the gods would be pleased to give 
us wealth, learning, and renown. My dear brother, 
a stalwart young fellow of twenty-one, spoilt his health 
and wasted his finely built body by fasting months and 
months. But nothing came of all this futile effort to 
please the gods — the stone images remained as hard as 
ever, and never answered our prayers. Oh that we had 



i8 PANDITA RAMABAI 

found out then that, 'Every man is brutish in his 
knowledge, every founder is confounded by the graven 
image ; for his molten image is falsehood ' ; * The idols 
have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and 
have told false dreams ; they comfort in vain.' 

" We knew the Vedanta, and knew also that we wor- 
shipped not the images, but some gods whom they repre- 
sented — still all our learning and superior knowledge 
was of no avail. We bowed to the idols as thousands 
of learned Brahmins do. We expected them to speak 
to us in wonderful oracles. We went to the astrologers 
with money and other presents, to know from them the 
minds of the gods concerning us. In this way we spent 
our precious time, strength, and wealth, in vain. 
When no money was left in hand we began to sell the 
valuable things belonging to us — ^jewelry, costly gar- 
ments, silver-ware; and even the cooking vessels of 
brass and copper were sold to the last, and the money 
spent in giving alms to Brahmins till nothing but a 
few silver and copper coins were left in our possession. 
We bought coarse rice with them and ate very sparing- 
ly ; but it did not last long. At last the day came when 
we had finished eating the last grain of rice — and noth- 
ing but death by starvation remained for our portion. 
Oh the sorrow, the helplessness, and the disgrace of the 
situation ! 

" We assembled together to consider what we should 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 



19 



do next; and after a long discussion came to the con- 
clusion that it was better to go into the forest and die 
there than bear the disgrace of poverty among our own 
people. And that very night we left the house in which 
we were staying at Tirpathy — a sacred town situated on 
the top of Venkatghiri — and entered into the great for- 
est, determined to die there. Eleven days and nights — 
in which we subsisted on water and leaves and a handful 
of wild dates — were spent in great bodily and mental 
pain. At last our dear old father could hold out no 
longer — the tortures of hunger were too much for his 
poor, old, weak body. He determined to drown himself 
in a sacred tank near by, thus to end all his earthly suf- 
fering. It was suggested that the rest of us should 
either drown ourselves, or break the family and go our 
several ways. But drowning ourselves seemed most* 
practicable. To drown oneself in some sacred river or 
tank is not considered suicide by the Hindus; so we 
felt free to put an end to our lives in that way. Father 
wanted to drown himself first; so he took leave of all 
the members of the family one by one. I was his 
youngest child, and my turn came last. I shall never 
forget his last injunctions to me. His blind eyes could 
not see my face; but he held me tight in his arms, and 
stroking my head and cheeks, he told me, in a few words 
broken with emotion, to remember how he loved me, 
and how he taught me to do right, and never depart 



20 PANDITA RAMABAI 

from the way of righteousness. His last loving com- 
mand to me was to lead an honourable life if I lived at 
all, and to serve God all my life. He did not know 
the only true God, but served the — to him — unknown 
God with all his heart and strength; and he was very 
desirous that his children should serve Him to the last. 
' Remember, my child,' he said, * you are my youngest, 
my most beloved child. I have given you into the hand 
of our God; you are His, and to Him alone you must 
belong, and serve Him all your life.' 

" He could speak no more. My father's prayers for 
me were, no doubt, heard by the Almighty, the all- 
merciful Heavenly Father, whom the old Hindu did not 
know. The God of all flesh did not find it impossible 
to bring me, a great sinner and unworthy child of His, 
out of heathen darkness into the saving light of His 
love and salvation. I can now say to the departed 
spirit of the loving parent — ' Yes, dear father, I will 
serve the only true God to the last.' But I could not 
say so when my father spoke to me for the last time. 
I listened to him, but was too ignorant, too bewildered 
to understand him, or make an intelligent answer. We 
were after this dismissed from father's presence; he 
wanted an hour for meditation and preparation before 
death. 

" While we were placed in such a bewildering situ- 
ation, the merciful God, who so often prevents His 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 21 

sinful children from rushing headlong into the deep pit 
of sin, came to our rescue. He kept us from the dread- 
ful act of being witnesses to the suicide of our own 
loved father. God put a noble thought into the heart of 
my brother, who said he could not bear to see the sad 
sight. He would give up all caste pride and go to work 
to support our old parents ; and as father was unable to 
walk, he said he would carry him down the mountain 
into the nearest village, and then go to work. He made 
his intentions known to father, and begged him not to 
drown himself in the sacred tank. So the question was 
settled for that time. Our hearts were gladdened, and 
we prepared to start from the forest. And yet we 
wished very much that a tiger, a great snake, or some 
other wild animal would put an end to our lives. We 
v/ere too weak to move, and too proud to beg or work 
to earn a livelihood. But the resolution was made, and 
we dragged ourselves to the jungle as best we could. 

*' It took us nearly two days to come out of the forest 
into the village at the foot of the mountain. Father 
suffered intensely throughout this time. Weakness 
caused by starvation and the hardships of the life in the 
wilderness hastened his death. We reached the village 
with great difficulty, and took shelter in a temple; but 
the Brahmin priests of the temple would not let us stay 
there. They had no pity for the weak and helpless. 
So we were obliged again to move from the temple and 



22 PANDITA RAMABAI 

go out of the village into the ruins of an old temple 
where no one but the wild animals dwelt in the night. 
There we stayed for four days. A young Brahmin see- 
ing the helplessness of our situation gave us some food. 

" The same day on which we reached that village, 
my father was attacked by fever from which he did not 
recover. On the first day, at the beginning of his last 
illness, he asked for a little sugar and water. We gave 
him water, but could not give sugar. He could not eat 
the coarse food, and shortly after he became un- 
conscious, and died on the morning of the third day. 

" The same kind young Brahmin who had given us 
some food came to our help at that time. He could 
not do much. He was not sure whether we were 
Brahmins or not ; and as none of his co-villagers would 
come to carry the dead, he could not, for fear of being 
put out of caste, come to help my brother to carry the 
remains of my father. But he had the kindness to let 
some men dig a grave at his own expense, and follow 
the funeral party as far as the river. Father had en- 
tered the Order of a Sannyasin before his death. So 
his body was to be buried in the ground according to 
the commands of the Shastras. As there was no one 
else to carry the dead, my brother tied the body in his 
dhoti like a bundle, and carried it alone over two miles 
to its last resting-place. We sadly followed to the river 
bank, and helped him a little. So we buried our father 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 23 

outside that village, away from all human habitation, 
and returned with heavy hearts to the ruins of the old 
temple where we had taken up our abode. That same 
evening our mother was attacked by fever, and said she 
would not live much longer. But we had to leave the 
place ; there was no work to be found, and no food to be 
had. We walked with our sick mother for awhile, and 
then some kind-hearted people gave us a little food and 
money to pay our fare as far as Raichur. There we 
stayed for some weeks, being quite unable to move from 
that town, owing to the illness of our mother. Our life 
at Raichur was a continuous story of hopelessness and 
starvation. Brother was too weak to work, and we 
could not make up our minds to go to beg. Now and 
then kind people gave us some food. Mother suffered 
intensely from fever and hunger. We, too, suffered 
from hunger and weakness; but the sufferings of our 
mother were more than we could bear to see. Yet we 
had to keep still through sheer helplessness. Now and 
then, when delirious, mother would ask for different 
kinds of food. She could eat but little; yet we were 
unable to give her the little she wanted. 

" Once she suffered so much from hunger that she 
could bear it no longer, and sent me into a neighbour's 
house to beg a little piece of coarse bajree cake. I went 
there very reluctantly. The lady spoke kindly to me; 
but I could on no account open mv mouth to beg that 



24 PANDITA RAMABAI 

piece of bajree bread. With superhuman effort and a 
firm resolution to keep my feelings from that lady, I 
kept the tears back; but they poured out of my nose 
instead of my eyes, in spite of me, and the expression of 
my face told its own story. The kind Brahmin lady, 
guessing what was in my mind, asked me if I would 
like to have some food ; so I said, * Yes, I want only a 
piece of bajree bread.' She gave me what I wanted, 
and I felt very grateful; but could not say a word to 
express my gratitude. I ran to my mother fn great 
haste, and gave it to her. But she could not eat; she 
was too weak. The fever was on her; she 
became unconscious, and died in a few days after that. 
Her funeral was as sad as that of my father, with the 
exception that two Brahmins came to help my brother 
and me to carry her body to the burning ground, about 
three miles from the town. 

" I need not lengthen this account with our subse- 
quent experiences. My elder sister also died of starv- 
ation, after suffering from illness and hunger. Dur- 
ing those few months before our sister died, we three 
travelled on foot from place to place in search of food 
and work; but we could not get much of either. My 
brother and myself continued our sad pilgrimage to the 
northern boundary of India, and back to the east as far 
as Calcutta. Brother got work here and there ; but most 
of the time we lived wanderers' lives. Very often we 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 25 

had to go without food for days. Even when my 
brother had work to do, he got so Httle wages — only 
four rupees a month, and sometimes much less than 
that — that we were obliged to live on a handful of grain 
soaked in water, and a little salt. We had no blankets 
or thick garments to cover ourselves ; and, when trav- 
elling, we had to walk barefoot, without umbrellas, 
and to rest in the night, either under the trees on the 
roadside or the arches of bridges, or lie down on the 
ground in the open air. Once on the banks of the 
Jhelum, a river in the Punjab, we were obliged to rest 
at night in the open air, and tried to keep off the intense 
cold by digging two grave-like pits, and putting our- 
selves into them and covering our bodies — except our 
heads — with dry sand of the river bank. Sometimes 
the demands of hunger were so great that we would 
satisfy our empty stomachs by eating a handful of wild 
berries, and swallowing the hard stones together with 
their coarse skins." 

It was during these wanderings with her brother that 
Ramabai's faith in the Hindu religion was shaken, 
though until twenty years of age she worshipped the 
gods of brass and stone. The freedom of their lives 
had given to the brother and sister keen powers of ob- 
servation, and they resolved to test the teachings of the 
sacred books whenever possible. The following is but 
one of many tests that exposed the hollowness of their 



26 PANDITA RAMABAI 

religion, and the deception of the priests. They had 
been taught that in the Himalayas there was a beautiful 
lake, in which were seven floating mountains — the 
forms in which seven sages, or Mahatmas, appeared. 
When sinless pilgrims came to the shore, the Mahatrnas 
floated toward them, and received their worship; but 
before the wicked they were immovable. During their 
journeyings, Ramabai and her brother, to their surprise 
and joy, found themselves near this lake, and beheld the 
mountains. They prostrated themselves, but received 
no sign. The priests warned them against going into 
the water, lest they be devoured by crocodiles; but the 
brother, early in the morning, when the priests were not 
on the watch, dared the crocodiles, and swam out to 
the mountains. He found them to be masses of stone 
and mud planted with trees, standing on rafts. The 
whole mystery was soon cleared. Behind the moun- 
tains a little boat was concealed. When a poor pilgrim, 
desirous of being considered sinless, crossed the palm 
of a priest's hand with sufficient coin, and called on the 
Mahatmas to float toward him, a priest in the boat gave 
the raft a push toward him, and he went away happy in 
his delusion. 

While wandering from place to place, Ramabai had 
free access to the homes of the high-caste Hindus ; saw 
the home-life in all its cruel details, and resolved to de- 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 27 

vote her life to the redemption of her unfortunate sis- 
ters, especially the child-widows. 

Ramabai and her brother gradually developed into 
public lecturers in the cause of the education of women. 
In Calcutta, Ramabai attracted much attention; and a 
solemn conclave of Pandits bestowed on her the title of 
Sarasvati, on account of her learning. She is the only 
woman who has been permitted to call herself Pandita. 
The Pandits were astonished at her learning. Beside 
her thorough knowledge of their sacred books, she had 
acquired fluency in seven of the languages of India ; and 
her ideas on reform were remarkable for so young a 
person. 

Echoes of Ramabai's lectures reached England even 
at this early date (December, 1880). A gentleman in 
India, writing to a friend there, told of an accomplished 
Brahmin lady travelHng through Bengal with her 
brother, holding meetings on the education and emanci- 
pation of women. " They were received everywhere," 
said this Indian correspondent, " with great enthusiasm 
by the Hindus, who were delighted to hear their holy 
Sanskrit from a woman's lips. It seemed to them as if 
Sarasvati (the goddess of eloquence) had come down 
to visit them. Instead of a hot, confined room, we 
had a long and broad terrace open to the sky, and with 
the Ganges flowing at our feet. The meeting was at 



28 PANDITA RAMABAI 

half-past four in the afternoon, by which time the ter- 
race was shaded from the sun by trees and houses to 
the westward. At the eastern end of the terrace a 
small marble table, with a glass of flowers on it, and 
some chairs were set, and there Ramabai stood up fac- 
ing the west and addressed her audience. On her right 
was the Ganges, covered with large, broad-sailed boats, 
of a type which perhaps has lasted for two thousand 
years. There was little or nothing around to remind 
her or her audience of European civilization. The 
clear, blue sky and the broad river coming sweeping 
down from the walls of Benares dominated everything 
else." This writer adds that " the young lady is 
twenty-two years of age, the daughter of a learned 
Pandit, slight and girlish looking, with a fair com- 
plexion and light grey eyes. She is now engaged to 
be married to a Bengali pleader, an M.A. of Calcutta 
University." 

Ramabai's parents had, contrary to custom, refrained 
from marrying her at an early age. They had be- 
trothed the elder daughter in infancy to a youth whose 
parents solemnly promised should be educated to equal 
his bride. But these people broke their promise, and 
great trouble resulted when the time for consummating 
the marriage arrived. Thus it came to pass that to 
prevent such a calamity occurring in the case of their 



THE CHILD OF THE FOREST 



29 



second daughter, her marriage was put off; and then, 
at the age of sixteen, the parents passed away within 
six weeks of each other. 

Before Ramabai and her brother had been long in 
Calcutta, the latter, weakened by years of privation, was 
taken ill and died. His chief concern during his brief 
illness was for his unprotected sister. " God will take 
care of me," said/she, to comfort him. " Then," he 
replied, " all will be well." . 

Shortly after, Ramabai was married to the educated 
Bengali gentleman mentioned above, who took her to 
his home in Assam. The marriage was a civil rite, for 
they had rejected Hinduism, and knew nothing of 
Christ. The marriage was a happy one, but of pain- 
fully short duration. In nineteen months, cholera 
snatched away the husband, leaving Ramabai, with her 
little daughter, Manorama (heart's joy), to begin her 
career as an Indian widow. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE HINDU WIDOW BEGINS HER LIFE-WORK: LESSONS 
LEARNED IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 

" Thy words were found, and I did eat them ; and Thy 
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: 
for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of Hosts." — 
Jer. XV. i6. 

RAMABAFS position in her widowed state dif- 
fered from that of the millions of her fellow- 
countrywomen when bereaved of their natural 
protectors, in that she was not ignorant of the world and 
its ways, and by the fact that she had an education fit- 
ting her to open out a path of usefulness for herself. 

Accordingly, we find her, within a few months of the 
death of her husband, at Poona, the ancient capital of 
the Marathas, having resumed her former occupation as 
lecturer on the Education of Women. 

The evil custom of confining high-caste women with- 
in the four walls of the Zenana, which prevails in the 
North- West Provinces and other parts of India, is un- 
known among the Brahmins of the Maratha country. 
In Poona and Bombay all Maratha women are free to 

30 



BEGINS HER LIFE WORK 



31 



walk and ride abroad^ to see and to be seen. This, and 
the fact that Ramabai had relatives and family connec- 
tions in Poona, drew her to recommence her career as 
a lecturer at this great centre of Brahminism. 

In prosecuting her object, Ramabai took her stand 
upon her knowledge of the Shastras, and maintained 
that their ancient teaching enjoined the instruction of 
women ; and that the neglected and ignorant condition 
of women was a modern descent into degradation. She 
advocated that high-caste girls should be instructed be- 
fore marriage in Sanskrit and the vernacular. She also 
strongly condemned the practice of child-marriage. 

Ramabai's lectures made a wide impression upon the 
best families in Poona, and, through her instrumen- 
tality, a Society of high-caste women was formed, hav- 
ing for its object the education of girls and tl;,e post- 
ponement of marriage to maturity. Encouraged by 
the success of this project in Poona, Ramabai went 
from city to city throughout the Maratha country, 
forming branches of the Arya Mahila Somaj, as this 
woman's Society was called. Ramabai also busied her- 
self with writing and translating, in the endeavour to 
create a literature helpful to her cause. In her leisure 
hours she gave lessons on morality and religion to the 
women of Poona. 

It was on Ramabai's heart during this time to start 
an institution for the education and succour of helpless 



32 PANDIT A RAMABAI 

widows. In this class she saw, in faith, the future 
teachers of the high-caste girls. But she failed in get- 
ting the necessary financial support from the Hindu 
community to put this cherished plan into execution. 
It was here and now, however, that she rescued her first 
widow. The girl was a waif of the Poona streets, a 
Brahmin child of twelve years, cast out by her hus- 
band's relatives after his death. For several years she 
had lived the life of a street arab. Her appeal to 
Ramabai was not on the ground of starvation and 
homelessness, but on the ever-increasing difficulty of 
keeping her budding womanly honour intact. To her 
homely face and strange defective eyes she probably 
owed her escape from the harpies of vice thus far. 

Ramabai was poor herself, but she took the girl in, 
to share whatever food she had, and to protect her from 
wrong and outrage. She is now a useful Bible- 
woman, labouring in connection with Ramabai's settle- 
ment at Mukti. 

In 1882 the British Government appointed a Com- 
mission to inquire into the question of Education in 
India. The terms of reference included the definite and 
separate question of female education; and when the 
Commission visited Poona, it was invited to a reception 
by over three hundred Brahmin women connected with 
Ramabai's Arya Mahila Somaj, who with their children 



BEGINS HER LIFE WORK 33 

assembled in the Town Hall at Poona. Ramabai was 
the speaker, and her subject the Education of Women. 

Subsequently Ramabai was examined before the 
Commission, and the President was so struck with her 
evidence that he had it translated from the Marathi and 
printed in English. In her replies to the questions 
put by the Commission, Ramabai told of her father's 
strenuous efforts for the education of women, of her 
brother's views, and those of her late husband, who 
was a Vakil,^ and fellow of Calcutta University. She 
told the Commission that she felt herself bound to the 
end of her life to labour on behalf of her country- 
women. She advocated that Girls' Schools should 
have specially trained women teachers ; that women in- 
spectors should also be employed; and concluded with 
a forcible appeal that Government should make pro- 
vision for the study of medicine by women, doctors of 
their own sex being, in her opinion, one of the greatest 
needs of the women of India. 

The publicity given to the proceedings of the Edu- 
cation Commission brought Ramabai into notice in cir- 
cles other than the Marathi Brahmins. She now began 
to feel that she herself needed more training and experi- 
ence in regard to the education of others. At this time 
she was unacquainted with the English language, al- 
though so well versed in those of India; and the idea 

*A lawyer. 



34 PANDITA RAMABAI 

that she should go to England for study and training 
forced itself again and again upon her mind. 

Ever since the death of her brother, and more par- 
ticularly again after her husband died, Ramabai had felt 
in an undefined manner that God was guiding her. 
Disillusioned by painful experiences during her girl- 
hood from the superstitions of Hinduism, she was still 
working from the Hindu standpoint. She knew but 
little of Christianity, and had no thought of becoming a 
Christian, but believed in an all-powerful deity whom 
she felt to be guiding her. Her mind became possessed 
of a divine unrest ; and given the opportunity, she one 
day found herself bound for England — going forth, as 
she says, like Abraham, not knowing whither she went. 
Arriving in England with her baby daughter, Ramabai 
was kindly received by a Church of England Sisterhood 
at Wantage, a community having a mission at Poona. 
Here she remained for a year, studying the English 
language, and adding to her stock of information in 
many ways. 

Four years before, when in Calcutta, Ramabai had 
made her first acquaintance with the Christian Scrip- 
tures. Keshub Chunder Sen, the founder of the 
Brahmo sect of Reformed Hindus, had given her a lit- 
tle book of precepts from all religions, most of which 
were from the New Testament. This greatly attracted 



BEGINS HER LIFE WORK 35 

her ; and later she possessed herself of a complete Bible, 
and commenced to read it. 

At Wantage, time and opportunity to study the sub- 
ject were afforded ; and here Ramabai confessed herself 
a Christian, and was baptized, with her little daughter, 
according to the custom of the Church of England, on 
September 29th, 1883. 

The difference that Ramabai at that time discerned 
between the good precepts of the Hindu Scriptures and 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ she thus expressed : " While 
the old Hindu Scriptures have given us some beautiful 
precepts of loving, the New Dispensation of Christ has 
given us the grace to carry these principles mto prac- 
tice; and that makes all the difference in the world. 
The precepts are like a steam engine on the track, beau- 
tiful and with great possibilities ; Christ and His Gospel 
are the steam, the motive power that can make the 
engine move." 

After the year spent at Wantage, Ramabai received 
the appointment of Professor of Sanskrit in the Chelt- 
enham Ladies' College, where she found opportunity to 
study mathematics, natural science, and English liter- 
ature. The immediate goal of her mental horizon was 
at this time bounded by a possible Government appoint- 
ment in connection with the education of women in 
India. 



36 PANDITA RAMABAI 

A year and a half was spent at Cheltenham, when an 
invitation to visit America opened out a new vista be- 
fore Ramabai's eyes, and led to important results. A 
high-caste Hindu lady from Poona, a friend and relative 
of Ramabai, had followed her in her determination to be 
of use to the millions of their fellow-countrywomen. 
Anaridibai Joshi had reached America, and studied 
medicine in the Women's Medical College of Philadel- 
phia. She was now about to graduate as M.D., and the 
invitation to Ramabai was to witness this ceremony. 
Ramabai's mind was agitated, she did not desire any 
interruption to her studies ; but finally came to the con- 
clusion that it would be a help to her life-work to visit 
America. She went with the intention of staying a 
few weeks. She stayed almost three years. 

The public school system of America — including 
girls as well as boys, and the Kindergarten, training 
hand as well as head — greatly attracted Ramabai. She 
felt she must remain and study these ; and in the course 
of a few months she enrolled herself for a course of 
Kindergarten study in a Philadelphia training school. 

In Rachel Bodley, A.M., M.D., the Dean of the Wo- 
men's Medical College in Philadelphia, Ramabai found a 
true friend, and with her also a home. Dr. Bodley 
had sheltered Anandibai Joshi, and helped her in her 
studies ; and the sad news of the untimely death of that 
devoted little Indian woman, a few months after her re- 



BEGINS HER LIFE WORK 37 

turn to her husband and home in India, bound Dr. 
Bodley more closely to Ramabai, and evoked in her a 
keener interest in her plans for the future. For now all 
Ramabai's old desire to benefit her countrywomen by 
founding schools which combined the training of the 
hand with that of the head, revived; and forsaking 
plans which regarded only the higher education of the 
few women in Government High Schools or Colleges 
in India, she concentrated her thoughts upon native 
schools founded by and for native women. 

While living with Dr. Bodley and studying Kinder- 
garten methods, Ramabai wrote her famous book, en- 
titled, " The High-Caste Hindu Woman." Here she 
portrayed the true history of countless thousands of 
lives doomed by a perverted and decaying religious sys- 
tem of lifelong ignorance ; to child-marriage with all its 
evils; to the absorption of young wives into the joint 
family system ; to the terrible abuse and degradation of 
widowhood; and to the re-action of this treatment of 
women upon social and family life in India. 

Dr. Bodley prefaced the book with an admirable 
treatise, sketching the devoted life and early death of 
Anandibai Joshi, relating Ramabai's history, and sup- 
porting and enforcing her appeal for help to go back to 
India and found an educational home for young 
widows, who in their turn should go forth as teachers 
to enlighten the darkness of their countrywomen. 



*. *' 



CHAPTER HI. 

DREAMS BECOME REALITY; THE SCHOOL FOR HIGH- 
' CASTE WIDOWS ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. 

"He brought them forth also with silver and gold." — PsA. 

cv. 37. 

44 r I ^HE silence of a thousand years has been 
I broken! " aptly declared Dr. Bodley in her 

preface to Ramabai's volume, entitled, 
" The High-Caste Hindu Woman." 

Missionaries and travellers had had many a story to 
tell of the inaccessibility of Hindu women immured 
within the four walls of the Zenana. Those who had 
gained access behind the purdah, or mingled with the 
castes not entirely secluded, had felt the wall of separa- 
tion raised by Oriental customs; so that, as yet, but a 
corner of the vail had been lifted. But now a voice 
had arisen from among themselves to tell with intimate 
knowledge how the ironbound customs of centuries had 
ground woman into a position of servitude and igno- 
rance ; making her at one and the same time the slave of 
man, and his greatest hindrance in rising to the higher 
plane of life held out by the religion of Jesus Christ. 

38 



DREAMS BECOME REALITY 39 

The book opened the way for Ramabai to the hearts 
of a class of cultured, earnest American women, who 
became deeply interested in the story of the imprisoned, 
contracted lives of India's daughters. Many of these 
were the abolitionists of America's great anti-slavery 
struggle of the previous decade. In the ranks of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union Ramabai found 
much help and encouragement. The late Frances E. 
Willard became her warm friend, and through her in- 
fluence much interest was evoked. 

Ramabai's lifelong desire to educate Hindu widows — 
that through them a door might be opened into the 
dense darkness of Hinduism — now took tangible shape. 
Ramabai travelled up and down the United States, 
speaking to large audiences here, and drawing-room 
meetings there, gaining interest and forming circles of 
help; at the same time exercising an alert eye with re- 
gard to every kind of educational enterprise with which 
she came in contact, noting many points for adaptation 
to the work in India later on. 

At an overflowing meeting held in Boston in May, 
1887, when the audience was moved to tears and laugh- 
ter by her pathos and keen wit, a provisional committee 
of women was formed to consider Ramabai's plans — to 
act with her, and report later. On December 13th of 
the same year, at another public meeting, the Provision- 
al Committee presented a report that was accepted, a 



40 PANDITA RAMABAI 

list of officers who were elected, a constitution that was 
adopted; and the temporary Association became an 
organized body — it seemed to spring into existence — 
and Ramabai saw her long-cherished plans take definite 
form. That night her joy was too great for sleep; 
when found sobbing in her room, she exclaimed, " I am 
crying for joy that my dream of years has become a 
reahty." The President and Vice-President of the As- 
sociation comprised members of five denominations ; the 
Board of Trustees, composed of some of the best busi- 
ness and professional men of Boston, was equally un- 
sectarian, as was the Executive Committee, formed en- 
tirely of women. 

Among converts to Christianity in India, especially 
those of the older Missions, there is a frequent trend to- 
wards a European style of living, fostered in some cases, 
without any intention on the part of the missionary, by 
the life in Christian boarding-schools, conducted after 
European plans. This, by setting Western ideals of 
life before the Indian Christian, leads to discontent with 
the simple native customs of food and dress. Their 
incomes will not support them in Western luxuries; 
and, in consequence, the converts find themselves fre- 
quently in debt and difficulty. 

This aspect of conversion to Christianity is looked 
upon with great disfavour by the Hindu community; 
and by its more ignorant members is regarded as part 



DREAMS BECOME REALITY 41 

of the Christian religion. Ramabai keenly felt this 
anomaly ; and realizing that Christianity was an Asiatic 
religion, and as such ought to be adaptable to India 
without Western additions, she wisely determined to 
maintain her Indian habits in all customs of food and 
dress. She would show her country people, on her 
return to India, that to become Christians, it was not 
necessary to denationalise themselves. 

In fact, Ramabai's strict vegetarian diet must have 
caused some difficulty to her American hostesses, even 
as their grand dinners, of which she coul4 eat so little, 
were a source of embarrassment to her. Brought up 
as she had been, with an intense repugnance to any 
kind of flesh-eating, it was an ordeal to be seated at 
table in the place of honour next to the host, with a 
smoking roast of meat in front of him (the smell of 
which overpowered her) , and to have to decline every- 
thing except a little bread and plain vegetable. But 
Ramabai, persevered in her determination, and returned 
to India as much of a Brahmin in food and habits, save 
as to their religious aspects, as she left it. 

Ramabai having become a Christian, placed her, how- 
ever, in a more serious difficulty than that of food, viz., 
the place in regard to religion which her educational 
home for widows should occupy. She had left her 
country in full sympathy with the more advanced Hin- 
du reformers ; she was returning, having cut herself off 



42 PANDITA RAMABAI 

from their sympathies by becoming a Christian. But 
she yearned more than ever to reach her own people; 
and the only method that approved itself to her judg- 
ment was to offer an education neutral as to religious 
teaching. Her plans in this respect were fully criticised 
as she went about expounding them to American audi- 
ences. 

Many spiritually-minded people committed to mis- 
sionary enterprise could not see why Ramabai should 
not cast in her lot with some Mission, and open an 
avowed Mission School. But Ramabai was strongly 
of opinion that no Mission School would reach the class 
for which her heart was aching. The people were too 
prejudiced against Christianity. Their widows were 
taught that it was better to commit suicide and be sure 
of heaven, rather than enter any institution established 
for the purpose of turning them from their ancestral 
faith. 

In the midst of this controversy, Ramabai cast no 
slur on Missions or Mission work ; but she rallied many 
to her standard outside of the ordinary supporters of 
Missions. In an interview with the representative of a 
Chicago daily paper, in December, 1887, on being asked 
to give her opinion on the good done by missionaries in 
India, Ramabai said : " Missionaries are showing by 
their precepts and example that Christianity does not 
mean going into other countries and taking possession 



DREAMS BECOME REALITY 43 

of them, putting taxes upon the people, introducing the 
liquor traffic, and gaining a great deal of revenue from 
the infamous traffics in rum and opium. As their 
numbers multiply they are gaining a foothold in the 
country, and also commanding the love and respect of 
the people by their earnestness in missionary work. 
. . . And finally, the blessed Gospel will be every- 
where preached by the missionaries; and I hope some 
day we shall owe to their labours and their prayers a 
great army of Christian apostles among our people who 
will eventually regenerate the whole Hindu nation 
through their lives and their teachings." 

In the same interview, with a variety of illustrations, 
Ramabai enforced her belief that the work she desired 
to do would prepare the way of missionaries by enabling 
widows to rise to an independent position in which they 
would be free to accept Christianity as she herself had 
done. *' Christ," argued Ramabai, " came to give dif- 
ferent gifts to different people — some He made proph- 
ets ; some He made preachers ; some He made teachers. 
Since I have become a Christian I have thought He has 
given me the gift of being a sweeper. I want to sweep 
away some of the old difficulties that lie before the mis- 
sionaries in their efforts to reach our Hindu widows." 

Ramabai further declared her belief that having the 
widows brought under the influence of her school, with 
the Bible placed in the hands of every pupil, Christian 



44 PANDITA RAMABAI 

women as teachers, and Christian literattire in its 
Hbrary, many would be won to see the beauty of Chris- 
tianity, and embrace it for themselves. 

Thus it came to pass that the platform of her work 
was declared to be neutral as to its religious teaching. 
Her Hindu pupils were to have full liberty to retain 
thelt caste, and perform their religious observances. 

In due time the " Ramabai Association " was com- 
plete. Its headquarters were in Boston; its base, 
" Ramabai Circles,'' in towns and cities all over the 
country. Members of circles pledged themselves to 
give or collect a certain sum annually for ten years, to 
equip and sustain a home and school in India for the 
education and support of high-caste Hindu widows. 

In May, 1888, Ramabai bade good-bye to her Boston 
friends and went on to Canada, and thence to the Pacific 
Coast, gaining friends and forming circles all the way. 
In November of the same year she left America for India 
via San Francisco and Hong Kong, and thus got a 
glimpse of China on the way. She arrived in Bombay 
on February ist, 1889, and chose that city in which to 
commence her work. Six weeks later the Widow's 
Home was quietly inaugurated in a house just back of 
the Chowpatty Sea-face. The modest announcement 
of " Sharada Sadan " (Abode of Wisdom) was placed 
on a board on its frontage. School commenced with 
two pupils, and the alphabet in three languages, 



DREAMS BECOME REALITY 45 

Marathi, English, and Sanskrit. One of the pupils 
had thrice attempted suicide, restrained only by the fear 
of being again born a woman. She is now the educat- 
ed wife of a professor in Poona College, and a happy 
mother. 

The Hindu reform circles in Bombay and Poona gave 
Ramabai a welcome ; her assurances of neutrality as to. 
religion were generally, though cautiously, accepted; 
and, in a short time, more pupils of the desired class 
were obtained. Ramabai went in and out among the 
Hindus, and had frequent opportunities of lecturing as 
of yore, when she always commanded a large audience. 

Miss Soonderbai H. Powar, at that time engaged in 
work among women in connection with one of the Bom- 
bay Missions, first brought me news of Ramabai and 
her work. She had visited Ramabai and been intro- 
duced to the pupils in residence. Her calling as a 
teacher of the Bible had been explained to them, and 
an opportunity to give a talk on the Bible and Christian- 
ity was afforded her. Ramabai's little daughter, 
Manorama, then about nine years old, had won Soon- 
derbai's heart, by insisting that she was a Christian, 
and that the Bible was her Shastra. 

In the course of a year or so, Ramabai moved the 
Sharada Sadan to Poona, as being a more healthy place, 
cheaper, and more suitable in every way for the work 
than Bombay. In 1892, through the continued gener- 



46 PANDITA RAMABAI 

osity of her American friends, she was enabled to pur- 
chase a commodious bungalow in a fine position in 
Poona, standing in about two acres of ground, which 
made an admirable home for the Sharada Sadan. 



CHAPTER IV. 



it 



A VISIT TO THE SHARADA SADAN, AND A GLIMPSE AT 
SOME OF ITS PUPILS. 

" Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven 
pillars." — Prov. ix. i. 

THE house that Ramabai secured for the perma- 
nent location of the Sharada Sadan in Poona 
stands well back from the road; but to make 
the position still more secluded, Ramabai lined the walls 
that divided it from the road with a screen of trellis- 
work. This, covered with creeping vines and backed 
by flowering shrubs, added to the bowery appearance of 
the garden. The garden, occupying nearly half the 
compound, was dotted here and there with fine shade 
trees, the gold mohur, the plumeria, and others, which 
are covered with gorgeous flowers in their season. 
Roses and lilies, jasmine and elemanta, variegated cro- 
tons, caladiums, bouganvillia, and the hundred and one 
tropical shrubs that are cherished greenhouse plants in 
our colder atmosphere, luxuriate in the beautiful climate 
of the deccan of India. Nowhere are they seen to more 

47 



48 PANDITA RAMABAI 

perfection than at Poona; and Ramabai's garden has 
always abounded with them. A shaded fernery, plant- 
ed around a fountain close to the house, affords a cool 
retreat for the heat of the day. Ramabai, as a child of the 
forest, was ever an enthusiastic lover of flowers, and 
longed for her pupils to take delight in them also. 

The house had its outer and inner apartments, like 
all houses built for Hindu family use. To these Rama- 
bai added two long dormitories, built one above the 
other. The upper was reached by a stone staircase 
outside, a further flight of stairs leading to an enclosure 
on the roof, from which to study the stars. 

" This is not an institution in which all the best rooms 
are reserved for the teaching staff," remarked Ramabai, 
to a party of visitors she was showing over the build- 
ing on the occasion of its opening ceremonies in July, 
1892. " My pupils," she continued, " are as free to 
come and go in the drawing-room as in any other part 
of the house. The Sadan with all its privileges has 
been instituted for their benefit. They come from 
homes where they have been treated as outcasts, where 
no love has been bestowed upon them, and no comforts 
provided for them. I wish them to see the contrast 
in all things where love rules. I wish them to become 
acquainted with as many good people as possible; to 
learn what the outside world is like from pictures and 
books; and to enjoy the wonderful works of God, as 



VISIT TO THE " SHARADA SAD AN " 49 

they ramble in the garden, study with the microscope, 
or view the heavens from the little verandah on the 
roof." 

The Pandita's aims, as thus set forth by herself, 
represented truly the atmosphere of the Sharada Sadan 
as I found it on my first visit at that time. The pupils 
came and went everywhere, learned their lessons in 
groups in the drawing-room, or walked in the garden 
by twos and threes, gathered roses and lilies for each 
other and the visitors, made wreaths of jasmine and 
decked each other's hair. 

" Bai," the usual Hindu title for the mistress of the 
house, was Ramabai's home appellation; while that of 
Miss Soonderbai Powar was " Ukka " (elder sister). 
A few months previously Miss Powar had taken up her 
abode with Ramabai as companion and friend; and as 
loving elder sister to the pupils her influence has been 
blessed in a marked degree. Out of school hours the 
girls followed Ramabai about and clustered around her 
like bees; while Soonderbai's little room was usually 
crowded with pupils coming and going, sure of a hear- 
ing and help in any difficult phase of work or lessons. 

The " good-night " scene, repeated with variations 
on all my visits to the Sadan during the subsequent 
seven years, was one to be enjoyed and remembered. 
When the retiring bell rang, wherever " Bai " and 
" Ukka " were to be found, there the girls and women 



50 PANDITA RAMABAI 

flocked in. Every one must have a good-night kiss — 
from the Brahmin woman of forty, who did the cook- 
ing, to the youngest child-widow. Some of them were 
not satisfied with one embrace, but would slyly come 
up a second time out of their turn, till the fun would get 
a little too riotous, and a summary dismissal was neces- 
sary. 

There were then about forty widows in residence, 
ranging in age from little girls of seven to the afore- 
said Brahmin cook of forty. But the majority were 
from fifteen to twenty-five. Most of the older women 
had their heads shaved, and wore their sarees drawn 
close around their faces to hide this disfigurement im- 
posed upon them by cruel custom. 

At this time of the opening ceremony in 1892, the 
schoolrooms were in the inner apartments, the veran- 
dahs being used as class-rooms. This was but a tem- 
porary arrangement, for the foundations were already 
in for a fine school-room in the compound opposite the 
entrance to the original building. This was completed 
and used a twelvemonth later. The other rooms were 
then utilized as dormitories for an increased number of 
pupils. 

The opening ceremonies were in two sections. In 
the morning a company of missionaries and Christian 
friends of various denominations assembled in the draw- 
ing-room for a dedication service. Ramabai said she 



VISIT TO THE " SHARADA SAD AN " 51 

desired a public thanksgiving to God for all the way He 
had led her, and for the provision of this beautiful 
building which had been given them by Christians in 
America. The speaking and prayers, in which many 
present took vocal part, were in line with this thought. 
One of the speakers closed his remarks with a Scrip- 
tural quotation which may now be looked back upon in 
the light of a prophecy. Turning to Ramabai he said : 
" My sister, * The Lord shall increase you more and 
more, you and your children.' * " 

In the evening the schoolroom was gaily decorated 
and filled with a sympathising company of Ramabai*s 
Hindu friends, relatives of the pupils, and a few Euro- 
peans. Addresses in Marathi were given by Ramabai 
and others. The pupils sang a number of Marathi 
songs, one of which, describing the woes of the widow, 
was very touching. An American White Ribbon song 
was nicely rendered by a few of the girls ; and four of 
them gave, with marvellous correctness, an English dia- 
logue, representing a scene in the life of Peter the Great. 
Thus it will be seen that their education had made con- 
siderable advance since the alphabet commencement be- 
fore-mentioned. 

It was my privilege at this time to spend several days 
at the Sadan. The loving spirit that prevailed, and the 
all-prevading energy of the bright little woman at the 

* Psalm cxv. 14- 



52 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



head of the house, were two features of the work that 
remained with me. There was never any trace of Ori- 
ental languor about Ramabai ; whatever she did she did 
with her might. Whether hearing the pupils recite 
their Marathi lessons, directing the malts in the garden, 
overseeing the workmen on the new building, or ex- 
plaining the operations of the institution to a party of 
visitors — she was all life and energy, the centre and 
circumference of all that was going on. 

I was particularly attracted by a happy group of 
child-widows, some half-dozen or more, about ten or 
twelve years of age. Such bright little girls! It was 
difficult to believe that they rested under the cruel ban of 
widowhood ! But even their games echoed the circum- 
stances of their lives. One of these, in which there was 
an amount of screaming and running away, was ex- 
plained to me. It was the new child-wife being tutored 
by her mother-in-law in domestic affairs, and, persist- 
ently misunderstanding her commands and bringing 
her the wrong articles, was being, in consequence, 
chased and punished! 

Somewhere about this time one who heard it took 
down a conversation between some of these little girls, 
in which occurred the following passages, illustrating 
the condition of girl-children who, not knowing what 
marriage means, are yet widows : — 

ViTTo: " I was a mere baby when I was married. 



VISIT TO THE " SHARADA SAD AN " 53 

We do not look like wives, do we ? Yet people call me 
a * widow/ ' unlucky,' and say I have killed my hus- 
band." 

Chanda : " I also am a widow, because my parents 
say so; but what is the meaning of it I do not under- 
stand. They say I shall have to suffer much as I grow, 
older. No one will love me because I killed and swal- 
lowed my husband; but I never saw him. I do not 
know who he was. Since I am come to this school 
all the teachers love me ; they try to make me happy, and 
they never say unkind words to me or think I am un- 
lucky." 

SuNDRi : " Prya, let us hear your history, and I will 
tell mine." 

Prya : " My father knew I would be a widow, but 
he purposely gave me in marriage." 

All the Girls : ** Prya, Prya, do not say so ! 
How could he know what would be in the future ? " 

ViTTO : " Well, sometimes parents do it for money. 
Do you know of one girl who was here in the school, 
and was obliged by her ignorant people to leave? The 
poor thing was married when she was five years old. 
She was given to a man of fifty for a hundred rupees. 
Within a year the miserable man died, leaving behind 
him a widow six years old ! Don't you think her par- 
ents must have had sense enough to know that such a 
small child given to an old man would become a widow ? 



54 PANDITA RAMABAI 

But they want money, or do it when they are tired of 
their daughter." 

The other girls chimed in with reminiscences of the 
cruel treatment meted out to this hapless widow of six 
years by her husband's relatives. 

Then Prya said : " You will get thousands of cases 
like that. My mother died when I was nine months 
old. When I was two years and six months my father 
wanted me to be married. He gave me in marriage to 
a little boy, who died six months afterwards, when I 
was three. My mother's friend took care of me till I 
was six; then my father brought me to Bombay. I 
lived with him four years, cooked for myself, and was 
very unhappy. My father was a strict Hindu, and did 
not love me because I was a widow. My mother's 
uncle put me in this school. My father did not like it, 
and came to Poona to fetch me out, but was taken ill. 
I went to see him. He said he wanted to see my head 
shaved and disfigured. But he died soon, and I was 
free." 

The poor little mites concluded their conversation by 
unanimously refusing to consider themselves widows; 
and rejoicing in the freedom and happiness found at 
the Sharada Sadan, they ran away to play. 

Soon after Ramabai settled her Sharada Sadan at 
Poona, she paid a visit to the ancestral home of her 
family in the Mangalore district, where she was well re- 



VISIT TO THE " SHARADA SAD AN " 



55 



ceived by her relatives. On her return to Poona 
several young widows from the extensive Brahmin 
community of the former place accompanied her, and 
became her pupils. The case of one poor ill-used girl- 
widow at this place had especially attracted Ramabai's 
attention, and she much desired to rescue her. This 
girl was used most cruelly by her relatives. She was 
beaten for the slightest fault. She was also punished 
by being suspended from the rafters of the roof by her 
wrists, while a heap of prickly pear-bush was placed 
underneath to receive her if she should succeed in free- 
ing herself. Another punishment was to shut her in 
a cook-house with burning chillies (red peppers) on the 
fire; this produces a most irritating smoke, and, often 
repeated, injures the eyesight. 

This poor girl was a most unhappy creature, feafful 
and suspicious of everybody. Ramabai tried in vain to 
gain her confidence, and her relatives treated with con- 
tempt the idea of giving her an education. Ramabai's 
diplomacy then led her to try another plan. She invited 
the mother-in-law and .one other female member of the 
family to pay her a visit with this girl. They came, 
and were courteously established on the compound, and 
a cookhouse appropriated to their use, their caste prin- 
ciples making separate cooking needful. Ramabai en- 
tertains like a princess, and the visitors felt themselves 
highly honoured. Some weeks passed away, during 



56 PANDITA RAMABAI 

which time Ramabai did all she could to gain the con- 
fidence of the unhappy girl, who, how^ever, did not ap- 
pear to be much more cheerful in spite of her change of 
surroundings, and the apparent change in the way she 
was treated. When she did at last open her heart to 
Ramabai, it was found that the course of ill-treatment 
had really never ceased; that these women had con- 
trived to beat the girl daily since their arrival at the 
Sharada Sadan, and to frequently lock her in the cook- 
house and leave her there for hours. As soon as 
Ramabai felt convinced that the victim trusted her, and 
would stand by her intention to remain, she told the 
other women that they might leave — a perfectly polite 
intimation according to Hindu custom. There was 
some trouble when they found the young widow deter- 
mined to remain ; but as she was over the age at which 
they could legally have forced her to return, they had 
to submit with the best grace they could, especially 
when they found Ramabai took her part. This young 
woman has long been a professing Christian, and a use- 
ful helper in the Sharada Sadan; but I always think her 
face bears traces of those years of systematic ill-usage. 
Probably the reader will be able to identify the heroine 
of this story in the picture of " Six Pupils of the Shara- 
da Sadan who have be^^^m'^^ '^h fustians." 



CHAPTER V. 

SOME OF RAMABAl's PUPILS BECOME CHRISTIANS; OP- 
POSITION AND PERSECUTION. 

" Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be filled." — Matt. v. 6. 

'^ T is altogether too bad that I should have all the 






blame on earth, and Ramabai all the reward in 
heaven," piquantly remarked Soonderbai Powar, 
when relating some stirring events that occurred at the 
Sharada Sadan in the early months of 1893. 

" The people are saying it is all because I am living 
with Ramabai that the girls are becoming Christians, 
and that I am the cause of all the trouble; but I have 
been away in England for several months, and on my 
return find all the girls attending Ramabai's prayer- 
meetings. How could it be my fault ? " 

Nevertheless, it was apparent that Soonderbai was re- 
joiced at these developments, and not so very much in- 
wardly disturbed at the blame meted out to her by the 
offended Brahmin community. 

Since leaving America to begin her life-work in In- 
dia, spiritual enlargement had come to Ramabai. From 
time to time, in the early part of the past decade, India 

57 



58 PANDITA RAMABAl 

was visited by earnest Christian evangelists from Brit- 
ain and America. Such men as Dr. Pentecost, Henry 
Varley, John McNeill, and a host of others not so well 
known, have gone on what are called " cold- weather 
tours," visiting the large cities, and addressing Euro- 
pean audiences, and also natives through an interpreter. 
Each of these seemed to have some special message, and 
most were greatly helpful in re-emphasizing the foun- 
dation truths of the Christian faith, leading many out 
into a truer and deeper Christian experience. 

Ramabai always eagerly embraced these opportun- 
ities, and, as she learned new lessons, incorporated them 
into her life and practice. In all these various minis- 
tries that helped her, it is but fair to say that Ramabai 
studied her Bible and made sure there was a " Thus 
saith the Lord " for all that she accepted. It was her 
practice then, and still is, to devote the early morning 
hour, from five to six a. m., to the study of God's Word 
and prayer. In those days she was usually joined by 
Soonderbai, her own little daughter, Manorama, and 
that section of her pupils whom she called her own 
family. 

In the prosecution of her work, Ramabai was contin- 
ually meeting with high-caste girls who were not wid- 
ows, but who were in circumstances of destitution and 
moral danger. Ramabai's American supporters gave 
her a generous personal allowance, very little of which 



OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION 59 

sufficed for her own simple needs. She employed the 
surplus in caring for a number of these poor girls, who, 
not being widows, but either deserted wives or destitute 
orphans, were not eligible for support from the funds 
of the Sadan. Some of these were maintained in Mis- 
sion Schools at Ramabai's expense, and she received 
some as members of her own family. A few she adopt- 
ed entirely, they having no natural guardians to whom 
they owed any sort of allegiance. 

Ramabai felt it was her duty to instruct these girls 
in the principles of the Christian religion. They were 
therefore aroused an hour before the other inmates of 
the Shadan to join in the early morning Scripture study 
and prayer. Neither was the door closed against any 
others who might be drawn to come and listen from 
motives of curiosity, or from a genuine desire to learn 
what it was in Ramabai's religion which made her so 
different from any one they had ever known before. 
And they did so, till, at the time of Soonderbai's return 
to India in the spring of 1893, fully half of the widows 
were attending these early morning meetings, and the 
Spirit of God was evidently applying the teaching 
powerfully to many hearts. 

At this time there were two other resident teachers 
in the school, who, though professing Christians, 
neither showed any sympathy with the movement nor 
attended the prayer-meetings. 



6o PANDITA RAMABAI 

As in a thrifty English household fruits are preserved 
and pickles made for winter use^ so a good Brahmin 
housewife has her season for drying and preparing a 
store of various fruits and herbs for use during the 
rainy season. Their season comes in the month of 
May, while ours is an autumn function. At this time, 
the middle of the hot weather, school holidays were 
given in Poona ; Ramabai's store room was likewise re- 
plenished — and a vacation from school work meant the 
employment of the girls in all the mysteries of preserv- 
ing, pickling, and preparing tamarinds, limes, mangoes, 
chillies, and the various spices used in the complicated 
culinary art as understood in well-managed Brahmin 
households. But it was not all work; now and then 
some delightful excursion was arranged, looked for- 
ward to, and much enjoyed. 

It was the time of an Indian festival in the middle 
of these holidays, and on the eve of the principal day of 
the feast Ramabai told her pupils that she had ordered 
conveyances for the morrow to take them to a beautiful 
spot, a few miles away, for a picnic. They would go in 
charge of the aforementioned teachers, and she trusted 
they would have a very happy time. To the eager in- 
quiries as to why Bai and Ukka were not going, she 
replied that they had need of a day alone with God; 
adding that if any of the girls wished to stay and join 
them, thev were at liberty to do so. Out of a total of 



OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION 6i 

sixty or sixty-five, about thirty elected to forego the 
picnic and remain for a day of prayer. The whole day 
was spent in devotion, the study of the Scriptures, 
prayer, and exhortation. Before it was ended, more 
than twenty declared themselves to be inquirers after 
the truth, and some seemed to have really received it 
into their hearts with joy and gladness. 

Ramabai and Soonderbai were filled with joy. A 
small Christian Endeavour Society was formed, of- 
ficers appointed, and a little upstairs room set apart for 
a prayer room. 

But " a city set on a hill cannot be hid," and it was 
soon noised abroad that Ramabai was making all the 
girls Christians. Then arose a storm. 

From time to time Ramabai had encountered difficul- 
ties from her Brahmin friends. In Bombay a " Man- 
aging Committee " had been appointed, who aimed to 
make the Sadan a strictly Hindu home, and imposed 
full observance of caste restrictions, the effect of which 
was to shut Ramabai and other Christian teachers out 
from certain parts of the dwelling. No pupil was free 
to attend any sort of Christian service, but any might 
worship at Hindu temples. This being decidedly 
against the strict neutrality enjoined by the American 
Committee, an appeal was made, and Ramabai was in- 
structed to resume the management herself. 

In an interview published in a Madras paper concern- 



62 PANDITA RAMABAI 

ing the conversions just named, Ramabai said: 
" When we came to Poona, an Advisory Board was ap- 
pointed to advise me with regard to outside matters- 
purchase of land, building, etc. They had nothing 
practically to do with the internal management of the 
Sadan. This Board consisted of three well-known 
Hindu gentlemen. We went on satisfactorily for some 
time, but when the number of girls attending my private 
prayers rose to about twenty, the matter was reported 
to them. We did nothing in secret. My room was al- 
ways open. They asked me whether some of the girls 
attended my private prayers. I replied that they did. 
Then they asked me to prevent them from doing so. 
I told them I could not conscientiously do that — I could 
not restrict my intercourse with the pupils. As a Chris- 
tian was at the head of the institution, the girls must be 
more or less under Christian influences. The members 
of the Advisory Board therefore tendered their resigna- 
tion, and issued a circular-letter to the parents and 
guardians of the scholars, asking them not to send their 
girls to the Sadan." 

About twenty-five of the girls were thus withdrawn. 
Many affecting scenes occurred. Some parents yielded 
to the entreaties of their daughters, and allowed them 
to remain, with the strict promise not to attend the 
prayer meetings in future. Some poor girls were car- 
ried off to certain persecution and ill-usage. In one 



OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION 63 

or two cases where Ramabai knew they would be taken 
av/ay to inevitable moral ruin, she resorted to various 
justifiable expedients to save them. 

The escape of one girl, in which my household had 
some share, was in some of its features as sensational 
as that of many an old-time negro slave. The escape 
was from as real a slavery. Only part can be told here. 
This lassie was one whom Ramabai had adopted as her 
own. Her mother, a Gujerathi widow, was living the 
life of a temple woman in Bombay (a " holy " Hindu 
harlot). A prominent Hindu reformer in Bombay, edi- 
tor of a newspaper, sent the girl to Ramabai to save 
her from her mother's fate. But when he heard that 
the girls were becoming Christians, he joined in the 
popular outcry, and incited the mother, vile as she was, 
to claim her daughter. He was only one of many who 
plainly showed that they would rather see Hindu girls 
become harlots than Christians. 

A chronic complaint, at that time troublesome, was 
a reason for sending the girl to a hospital in Bombay, 
This would gain time. A message was sent also to me 
asking me to visit her, and if possible devise some way 
of saving her from her threatened fate. Owing to the 
riots then raging in Bombay between Hindus and Mo- 
hammedans, it was some days before I could get to see 
her. Mrs. Man Sukh Lai, then living in our house, 
accompanied me, and visited her frequently afterwards. 



64 PANDITA RAMABAI 

To her the girl opened her heart. She wanted to be 
sent away where her mother could not get at her to 
ruin her. She dreaded the day of her discharge. Fre- 
quently the mother and some priests wei'e found there 
at the visiting hour. They brought her the Hindu 
Shastras and wanted to take her Bible away from her. 
Day by day the hospital was watched at the hour of dis- 
charging patients. But, by the kindness of the matron, 
we were permitted to remove her at a different hour, 
and at once sent her out of the city to the care of a 
missionary friend; Ramabai being purposely kept in 
ignorance of her whereabouts. But the mother con- 
tinued to trouble Ramabai, claiming now that her 
daughter was two years younger than she herself had 
stated when first given to Ramabai, while the latter 
believed her to be of legal age to decide for herself. 

Renewed torrents of abuse were poured out upon 
Ramabai by the entire native press. She was then 
consecrated up to the point of not caring for her own 
reputation — but her school must not be ruined. She 
came to me and said the school would be ruined if the 
girl were not given up. I declined to have any hand in 
producing the girl, but at Ramabai's entreaty gave her 
the name of the missionary friends who had taken charge 
of her. They finally arranged to bring her to the head 
police office in Bombay and let the matter be decided 
there. The girl was brought, but the mother did not 



OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION 65 

keep the appointment. The Christian PoHce Superin- 
tendent declined to give her to the Hindus who came 
to represent the mother, and she was again removed 
by my friends. A subsequent attempt to gain posses- 
sion of her was at once abandoned when it became 
known that the missionary in whose house she had been 
staying had baptised her ! The deed was done, she was 
now a Christian, and was at once reHnquished to her 
fate by her mother and the priests. Ramabai's perfidy 
was again pubHshed to the world, although the baptism, 
administered at the girl's own ardent desire, took place 
entirely without Ramabai's knowledge or consent. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM. 

"Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are 
evening wolves." — Zeph. iii. 3 

THE storm raised over the baptism of the young 
woman mentioned in the last chapter was 
fiercer even than that of the previous three 
months. It threatened to annihilate the institution; 
more pupils were removed, and the leading Hindus of 
the Bombay presidency seemed to be determined that 
they would never rest until they saw the Sharada 
Sadan die an ignoble death. But God gave Rama- 
bai three promises at that time of great trouble. They 
were as follows: 

" No weapon that is formed against thee shall pros- 
per; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in 
judgment thou shalt condemn." ^ 

" These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me 
ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribu- 
lation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the 

world." 2 

* Isaiah liv. 17. John xvi. 33. 

66 



MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 67 

■ ' Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse . . . and 
prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I 
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you 
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it."* 

These promises were a great source of comfort and 
strength to Ramabai, and have been marvellously ful- 
filled, as will be seen later on. 

In a report made subsequently to her American 
friends, Ramabai thus succinctly explained her policy. 
Reminding them that she had all along insisted that the 
institution should be unsectarian, she said : " We give 
them (the pupils) all liberty to keep their caste and cus- 
toms, and we have made all arrangements for it. They 
are not prevented from praying to their own gods, nor 
from wearing those gods around their necks, if they 
want to ; and some girls in my school do so, as I used to 
do years ago. Do you think I have gone against the 
religion of the girls ? No, not in any way. I have not 
taught the girls any religious system. If they wanted 
any religious training, they might go out of the school 
to the missionary, or to the Hindu teacher. But I am 
glad to say that some light came to them — not from 
ourselves, but from God. 

" I was a Christian woman, and I had a home of my 
own, and a daughter for whom I thought I must make 

* Malachi iii. 10. 



68 PANDITA RAMABAI 

a home. I had made the resolution of Joshua, * As for 
me and my house, we will serve the Lord/ That shall 
be my resolution to the end. I let my girls do what 
they like ; but I have the freedom with which Christ has 
made me free : and why should I keep my light under a 
bushel? I do not mean to do it. When I had my 
family worship in my own room, not in the school-hall, 
some of the girls began to come in ; and we gave them 
freedom to come, if they wanted to. 

" My Hindu brethren thought it was going too far, 
and that I was Christianizing those girls. They wanted 
me to shut my room when I was reading the Bible and 
praying. I said, ' No ; I have the same freedom to 
practice Christianity which these girls have to practice 
their religion. Why should I shut the door of my 
room, which I do not shut at any other time during the 
twenty-four hours of the day ? ' The Hindu friends 
were much offended at it, and wanted to pull our school 
down, and raise another school on its ruins; but I am 
glad to say that the foundations of this school have not 
been set on the sand, but on the eternal Rock, and it 
stands there to this day, and it will stand for ever and 
ever." 

In the cold season following the events narrated, Mrs. 
Judith Andrews, President of the Executive Committee 
of the American Ramabai Association, visited India. 
She spent several weeks at the Sharada Sadan, and fa- 



MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 69 

miliarized herself with the work and workers. The 
pupils, taught by Ramabai to be courteously attentive 
to all guests, were charmed with the gentle white-haired 
old lady, and bestowed upon her the endearing ap- 
pellation of Ah jibai (grandmother). 

During the visit of Mrs. Andrews, the school-house 
alluded to in Chapter IV. was publicly dedicated, 
though it had been in use for some time. The meet- 
ings on that festive day, March 12th, 1894, partook of 
the same character as those of the dedication of the 
previous buildings. Much sympathy was expressed by 
the speakers for Ramabai in the severe trials through 
which she had passed, and the hope was voiced that she 
would not be again burdened with another " Advisory 
Committee." And she never has. Some Hindu gen- 
tlemen present also expressed their repentant sympathy, 
and an account of the meeting, written at the time, 
says, *' God has greatly helped Ramabai and sustained 
her work. Her prospects are brighter now than they 
have ever been before." 

No trip to India is considered complete without a 
sight of some of her ancient palaces, temples, and 
tombs. As the most noted of these are in North India, 
Mrs. Andrews desired to take the usual trip to Agra, 
Delhi, etc., and prevailed upon Ramabai to accompany 
her. She could not have had a better guide. Ramabai 
had been there before; and under her auspices Mrs. 



70 PANDITA RAMABAI 

Andrews saw sights that other travellers miss — sights 
calculated to give a more just idea of the lives really led 
by those who once peopled these ruined marble halls. 
In the grounds of what is now called the Agra Fort 
are some ruined palaces of the Moghul emperors. 
Ramabai must tell the story herself and draw the moral 
as she alone knows how : " The guide showed us the 
Rani's private rooms, the gardens and grand marble 
buildings, once occupied by the kings and queens. He 
also showed us the beautiful pleasure tower called 
Saman Burj. Visitors are shown all that is beautiful 
here, and they go away carrying very pleasant impres- 
sions of Agra with them. 

" I was not satisfied with seeing the outside beauty 
of those ' poems in marble,' but wished to see the dun- 
geons, and the place where the unfortunate women 
used to be confined and hanged at the pleasure of the 
king. The guide at first denied the existence of such 
places in the palace ; but, finally — on obtaining a prom- 
ise to get a little more money for his trouble — he con- 
sented to show the dungeons. He opened a trap-door 
on one side of the palace, let us in, and guided us about, 
showing us the many small and large underground 
rooms where the queens who had incurred the king's 
displeasure used to be shut up, tortured, and starved, 
until it pleased the monarch to set them free. The 
guide then lighted a big torch, and took us to the 



MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 71 

furthest end of the prison, into a room underneath the 
Saman Burj, or Jasmine Tower. The room was very 
dark and octagonal, with a deep, dark pit in the centre, 
and a big beam placed on the walls right over that pit. 
This beam, beautifully carved, served for hanging the 
unfortunate women who once occupied the throne of the 
king as his queens, but had by some unknown cause 
fallen under his displeasure, and had to suffer such a 
cruel and ignoble death. Their lifeless bodies were let 
down into that dark pit, whence a stream carried them 
to the waters of the Jumna, to be eaten by crocodiles. 
Thus the poor, miserable wives of the Moghul empe- 
rors suffered toture and death in that dark hell-pit under 
the pleasure-gallery, while their cruel masters and rivals 
sang songs, enjoyed life, and made merry over their 
grave in the beautifully decorated, grand, Saman Burj. 
I think but little of those lovely places, but always re- 
member seeing that dark room, and compare it with 
similar places of torture which exist in many sacred 
towers of India. If the walls of that horrible room had 
the power of speech, oh, what stories of human cruelty 
and misery would they tell to-day ! 

" I beg of my Western sisters not to be satisfied with 
looking on the outside beauty of the grand philosophies, 
and not to be charmed with hearing the long and in- 
teresting discourses of our educated men; but to open 
the trap-doors of the great monuments of ancient Hin- 



72 PANDIT A RAMABAI 

du intellect, and enter into the dark cellars, where they 
will see the real workings of the philosophies which 
they admire so much. Let our Western friends come 
to India, and live right among us. Let them frequently 
go to the hundreds of sacred places where countless 
pilgrims throng yearly. Let them go round Jagannath 
Puri, Benares, Gaya, Allahabad, Muttra, Brindraban, 
Dwarka, Pandharpur, Udipi, Tirpatty, and such other 
sacred cities, the strongholds of Hinduism and seats 
of sacred learning, where the Mahatmas and Sadhus 
dwell, and where the ' sublime ' philosophies are daily 
taught and devoutly followed. There are thousands 
of priests and men learned in sacred lore, who are the 
spiritual rulers and guides of our people. They neglect 
and oppress the widows, and devour widows' houses. 
I have gone to many of the so-called sacred places, lived 
among the people, and seen enough of those learned 
philosophers and possessors of superior Hindu spirit- 
uality who oppress the widows, and trample the poor, 
ignorant, low-caste people under their heels. They 
have deprived the widows of their birthright to enjoy 
pure life and lawful happiness. They send out hun- 
dreds of emissaries to look for young widows, and bring 
them by hundreds and thousands to the sacred cities to 
rob them of their money and their virtue. They entice 
the poor, ignorant women to leave their own homes to 
live in the Kshetras, i e., holy places, and then, after 



MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 73 

robbing them of their belongings, tempt them to yield to 
their unholy desires. They shut the young helpless 
widows into their large Mathas (monasteries), sell and 
hire them out to wicked men so long as they can get 
money; and, when the poor, miserable slaves are no 
longer pleasing to their cruel masters, they turn them 
out in the street to beg their livelihood, to suffer the 
horrible consequences of sin, to carry the burden of 
shame, and finally to die the death worse than that of a 
starved street dog ! The so-called sacred places — those 
veritable hellg on earth — have become the graveyards of 
countless widows and orphans. 

" Thousands upon thousands of young widows and 
innocent children are suffering untold misery and dying 
helpless every year throughout this land; but not a 
philosopher or Mahatma has come out boldly to cham- 
pion their cause and to help them. The teachers of 
false philosophies and lifeless spiritualities will do no 
good to our people. Nothing has been done by them 
to protect the fatherless and judge the widow. If any- 
thing has been done by anybody at all, it has been by 
those people who have come under the direct influence 
of Christianity. Education and philosophies are 
powerless before the caste rules, ancient customs, and 
priestcraft. That is why our educated men and our 
learned Sadhus are so indifferent toward their own 
brothers and sisters. The educated men and learned 



74 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



priests do not like to move about. They don't want to 
take the trouble to go about to see how dreadfully the 
widows have to suffer, and how many thousands of lives 
are destroyed by their priestly brethren. They mourn 
over a few women who have the boldness to declare 
themselves as free women, and to follow their con- 
science; but they say nothing of the thousands who 
die every year or lead shameful lives. I earnestly beg 
the women of America and England to come to India 
and live in our sacred cities, not living in European 
and American fashion, but living like the poor beggar- 
women, going in and out of their dirty huts, hearing 
the stories of their miserable lives, and seeing the fruits 
of the sublime philosophies. Let not my Western sis- 
ters be charmed by the books and poems they read. 
There are many hard and bitter facts which we have to 
accept and feel. All is not poetry with us. The prose 
we have to read in our own lives is very hard. It can- 
not be understood by our learned brothers and com- 
fortable sisters of the West." 

The iniquitous traffic in widows alluded to here 
by Ramabai opens the door to a subject in connection 
with Hinduism, the knowledge of which has been a sore 
burden on Ramabai's heart, and has forced from her 
many tears and groans on behalf of its victims. Some 
twelve months or more after this visit with Mrs. An- 
drews, Ramabai set off on a visit to Brindaban, a sacred 



MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 



75 



city about forty miles from Agra, to see what she could 
do to rescue some of the miserable victims of priest- 
craft. She disguised herself as a poor pilgrim and took 
a mean lodging in the city, going in and out among the 
women, heard their stories of cruel wrong, and tried to 
plan some way of escape for them. She found an or- 
ganized method of entrapping them. The agents of 
the rich priests who own this city of sacred temples, go 
about the country and by inquiry find where the rich 
young widows live. They enter into conversation with 
them, and persuade them of the merits of pilgrimage to 
expiate the sins which have caused their widowhood. 
They tell them they will go direct to heaven if they will 
live at these sacred places and serve the priests and 
Sadhus and worship Krishna. They are courteously 
received on arrival, then subtle temptations are laid to 
deprive them of their money and jewels, and when these 
are gone their virtue follows. Brindaban is largely de- 
voted to the deity Krishna, whose vile and immoral 
character is rejoiced in by his followers. If these poor 
women are unwilling to live immoral lives, they are told 
that it is no sin to do so in these sacred precincts, which 
are specially favoured by Krishna. Ramabai found 
hundreds of widows here, mostly from Bengal. She 
planned for the escape of six or seven of these women ; 
but her plans were frustrated, and she returned sick 
with the mental depression, the moral debasement, and 



76 PANDITA RAMABAI 

the actually foetid conditions of life which she under- 
went in her efforts to save some of these perishing ones. 

The dark features of Hinduism thus portrayed, not 
only infest the " sacred " cities, but spread like a miasma 
into every region of Hindu life. Ramabai computes 
that ten per cent, of the women and girls who have come 
into her hands during the twelve years of her experience 
have been sinned against by heartless men. 

In her efforts to help widows, Ramabai has been fre- 
quently asked to shelter deserted wives. Childless 
women are constantly being driven from their husbands' 
homes by a more favoured rival. Many of these have 
come into Ramabai's hands, and in some cases she has 
been successful in obtaining for them a divorce. Per- 
secuted wives, too, have fled to her for help and shelter. 
Some of these have needed protection from husbands 
who were " going about to kill them " ; and I have 
known Ramabai have two or three such in hiding at one 
time from the rage of those who should be their natural 
protectors. 



CHAPTER VIL 

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE; RAMABAfs SPIRITUAL EX- 
PERIENCES. 

** She considereth a field and buyeth it : with the fruit of her 
hands she planteth a vineyard." — Proverbs xxxi. i6. 

WHEN Pandita Ramabai arranged with her 
friends in America to support the Sharada 
Sadan for ten years, she confidently expected 
that at the end of that time the Hindus virould have be- 
come so convinced of the benefits of education for 
women that they would willingly pay for it. But, as 
the years went on, it was evident that this prospect be- 
came no nearer realization. Ramabai's mind became 
exercised about the future support of the school — how, 
could it be brought about ? After considerable thought 
and prayer, she conceived the plan of purchasing a 
piece of land in the country, and planting it with fruit 
trees, the produce of which should yield a fair income 
in the course of a few years. 

Acting upon the principle that " If two of you shall 
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 

n 



78 PANDITA RAMABAI 

it shall be done for them of My Father which is in 
heaven," Ramabai and Soonderbai joined in prayer that 
if the thought was of the Lord, He would send the 
money to purchase such a fruit-farm. They then be- 
gan to look out for answers. Ramabai mentioned the 
plan to several of her friends both in India and in 
America. Money given to be used at her discretion 
was placed to this fund; it gradually grew. In 1894, 
two years after they had began to pray, the money was 
in hand, and the purchase of the farm an accomplished 
fact. 

A suitable piece of ground was found to be for sale 
at Khedgaon, close to a railway-station on the recently- 
opened Southern Marathi Railway, about forty miles 
south of Poona. Ramabai planted a portion of the 
land with hundreds of young orange, lime, and mango 
trees. A fine well was dug, and a vegetable garden 
made, which in a few months supplied most of the 
vegetables used by the school. The remainder of the 
hundred acres were, by degrees, cleared of the jungle- 
wood, by which they were covered, and planted with 
various useful crops; leaving only one very rocky por- 
tion, of which the Government took a part in making a 
new road. 

There was a charm about life at the Sharada Sadan 
that always captivated me. I learned more about the 
ways and thoughts of genuine Indian life by a few days 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 79 

with Ramabai than in months and years of ordinary 
European experience in Bombay. 

When therefore Ramabai asked me to spend the New 
Year holidays of 1895 with her, I was very glad to be 
free to accept the invitation. The Sharada Sadan was 
" Liberty Hall " for guests. They could either have 
their meals sent to their rooms, or join the family. I 
usually prefered the latter. When breakfast or dinner 
was ready, Ramabai herself would come to escort me to 
the refectory. This was a long, shed-like building, 
with a verandah in front, on which we left our shoes. 
There was no furniture, save a row of stools along each 
wall. I call them stools for want of a better name; 
they were simply boards about one foot by two feet, 
raised about two inches from the ground. These were 
the seats. I was placed next to the hostess, who com- 
menced by pouring water over her hands and mine. 
She then inspected the brass vessels which were placed 
in front of us, and usually rinsed out the shining brass 
plates. 

Then the girls who had been cooking came in and 
deposited quickly a small mound of rice on each plate ; 
another followed with a pot of ghee (clarified butter) 
and poured a little on the rice ; another served us with 
two kinds of curry, made of lentils or peas, in small 
brass basins. Others followed with hot chappatties 
(unleavened bread), then vegetables of several kinds. 



8o PANDITA RAMABAI 

all cut small and fried with herbs and pepper. In ad- 
dition to this, the ordinary fare, Ramabai always served 
her guests with fruit, cake, and milk. I enjoyed the 
food, and succeeded fairly well in my endeavour to eat 
it in the same fashion as my Indian sisters, without the 
aid of fork, knife, or spoon. 

On the visit of which I am writing, I spent several 
pleasant days, the last being New Year's Day. All the 
Christian girls who understood English attended the 
Watch-night Service with Soonderbai and Manorama, 
while Ramabai conducted a service of her own at home 
in Marathi for the other Christian girls. All were up 
bright and early on New Year's morning in anticipation 
of a happy day. Ramabai informed me that we were 
invited to breakfast with one of the Christian teachers 
of the Sadan who lived with her family in the city, but 
that she was going on a round of New Year visits first 
and I could accompany her. 

The dumnie, a heavy covered wagon, drawn by two 
fine white bulls, came round about 8 a. m., and we start- 
ed off. Manorama and some others of the children 
were included in the party of s;x. In the front of the 
wagon and beneath the seats were piled huge baskets of 
sweetmeats, from which I partly guessed the nature 
of the visits we were about to pay. We first alighted at 
the Anglo-Indian Children's Home, a work of faith, 
founded by the late Miss Dawlly, which cares for desti- 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 8i 

tute children of European and Eurasian parentage. As 
we waited the appearance of Mrs. Hutchings, the devot- 
ed successor of Miss Dawlly, I related to Ramabai the 
peculiar history of one of the children in that institu- 
tion. " I wish to support a child here," said Ramabai ; 
" I will support that very girl." And from that day 
that dear child has found a kind friend in Ramabai. 
Her holidays are spent with Ramabai ; and when I last 
met her she was looking forward to taking up some post 
of usefulness in connection with the work in years to 
come. 

One basket of sweetmeats was left here, and I fancied 
also a more substantial gift, by the happy and grateful- 
looking faces we left behind us. The Government poor- 
house was our next destination. This covered a con- 
siderable extent of ground, and here we saw maimed, 
halt, blind, and lepers. Ramabai went through all the 
compounds, and herself gave a large ball of sweetmeat 
to each inmate, while the respectful salutation of " Sa- 
laan^ Bai," sounded gratefully on all hands. Indian 
sweetmeats are a food as well as a luxury — this was a 
peculiarly nourishing kind, made of lentils, butter, and 
sugar. 

" Poor things, they have no pleasures," said Ramabai. 

Our next visit was to the lunatic asylum. The dis- 
tribution here was assisted by two of the keepers. We 
saw, sad sights here indeed, and some that were com- 



82 PANDITA RAMABAI 

ical. One man, a Mahommedan, looked very fiercely 
at me, and ordered me (in Hindustani) to go back to 
my country, saying that I had only come there be- 
cause I could not get enough to eat in my own land. 

Gratitude there was none. The poor creatures 
snatched the sweetmeat and cried out for more. Ram- 
abai persevered in overseeing the distribution. She 
dared not leave it to the officers of the place, lest any 
should lose their share. On leaving, she remarked to 
me that it was evident that a large proportion were 
there through opium and ganga (hemp-drug) — ^their 
appearance showed this. 

The breakfast prepared for us at the teacher's house 
was very elaborate. Plaintain leaves were spread for 
plates. A merry party of about twenty sat down to 
cat the repast, which was strictly vegetarian. One very 
delicious dish so closely resembled custard that one 
could scarcely believe it was made without eggs; but 
I was assured it was a combination of rice and cocoa- 
nut. 

The great event of the day was to be a Brahmin 
dinner given by an aunt of Ramabai's, a Hindu, who 
was visiting her. The old lady took great pleasure 
and pride in cooking this dinner and serving it up, 
though she would by no means have defiled her caste 
by sitting down with us — Christian outcasts — ^to eat 
it. Two missionary families and several Indian Chris- 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 83 

tians joined the dinner party. The festivities ended 
with a surprise party of Soonderbai's planning, held in 
the large schoolroom. A monster bran tub furnished 
presents for pupils, teachers, and visitors. The little 
ones had toys and picture books; the pupils had each 
the material for a choli (a short bodice that they all 
wear) with knitting-needles, crochet-hooks, wool, etc., 
etc. The party dispersed after a happy day, and 
Ramabai and myself took the night train to Bombay. 

The battle had been decided as to whether Hinduism 
or Christianity should have the ascendancy in the Shar- 
ada Sadan. As Ramabai's Christian life strengthened 
and deepened, she became more independent of even 
the opinions of her quondam Brahmin friends. At the 
same time, she kept strictly to her covenant of giving 
an entirely unsectarian education, with freedom to her 
pupils to observe all their Hindu customs. The Brah- 
min community gradually came to the conclusion to let 
Ramabai alone. They accepted the fact among them- 
selves that she had gone irrevocably from them; and 
that all the benefits of her work which they had looked 
upon to shed lustre on their ancient religion were quite 
lost to them. A rival institution, or what was intended 
to be a rival institution, to the Sharada Sadan, was 
started as a boarding establishment in connection with 
the Poona Girl's High School; but though it existed 
for a few years, it never flourished greatly. Some of 



84 PANDITA RAMABAI 

the girls who had been rernoved from the Sadan were 
placed in this institution, but more than one finally re- 
turned to Ramabai. 

As time went on, the light of Christianity shone more 
and more brightly in the Sharada Sadan. The Christian 
Endeavour Meetings prospered. Morning and evening 
prayers were held in a larger room, and attended by 
the majority of the pupils. Ramabai's little daughter, 
Manorama, whose heart had been early opened to di- 
vine influences, took a leading share in carrying on the 
work among the girls. Those who were interested in 
Christianity, and not forbidden by their guardians, at- 
tended Church and Sunday-school outside,, as well as 
the ministrations of a Poona missionary, who held 
meetings in the prayer-room once a week. 

The natural outcome of all this teaching was the 
creation among those girls who had received Christ 
of a desire for baptism. They wanted to become Chris- 
tians in fact and deed, as well as in heart. Ramabai, 
however, was in favour of their remaining unbaptized 
— at least, while pupils in the Sharada Sadan. The 
school, she affirmed, was not for Christian girls, but 
for Hindus ; and, consequently, she could not encourage 
the proposed baptisms. Several of the girls, however, 
made their own arrangements with the missionary 
whose classes they attended, and were baptized in the 
Methodist Church at Poona. Ramabai let things take 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 85 

their course; but, after the baptisms, she told these 
girls that she could no longer accept them as pupils of 
the Sharada Sadan. As they all declared their readi- 
ness to work for their living, work was found for them. 
One or two became teachers in other schools; some 
were employed as teachers in the primary department 
of the Sadan; and others, unfit for teaching, accepted 
posts as servants of the establishment, cheerfully under- 
taking menial work as unto the Lord. Thus the diffi- 
culty was bridged over, and time was allowed for con- 
tinuing their studies in part to those who wished it. 

Among the pupils thus baptized was one particularly 
nice and good girl, whose early history illustrates the 
condition and hardship of the little widow more than 
many. 

This poor little child, married at the age of five to a 
man forty years her senior, became a widow at six. 
She was left in charge of her husband's brother, a Brah- 
min innkeeper in a country district, a day's journey by 
rail from Poona. As the child grew up, she became 
a regular little slave, beaten and half-starved. She was 
employed constantly in going backwards and forwards 
to a well a quarter of a mile away to fetch water, which 
she carried on her hips and her head in great copper 
vessels. She was very miserable and her treatment was 
no secret to the people around. 

One day Ramabai received a letter informing her of 



86 PANDITA RAMABAI 

this poor child's forlorn condition, and of the location of 
the well where she might so often be found. One of 
Ramabai's helpers visited the place in disguise, gained 
the confidence of the child, and arranged to take her 
away by the night train. The girl was then about 
eleven years old, and with her shaven head was easily 
disguised as a Mahomedan boy. Before the train start- 
ed she was missed, and her people were in pursuit of 
her. They were at the station, but failed to recognise 
her; and she escaped. She bloomed out into a most 
lovable and estimable girl, and was married in 1897 to 
a fine Christian young man. 

In a little tract published in Bombay, in 1895, Rama- 
bai told the story of her own spiritual experiences. 
She said : " When I turned my attention to searching 
for the truth in the Hindu and Christian religions, and 
comparing them with each other, I found Christianity 
to be the better of the two, and accepted it. I was duly 
baptized in the Church of England. I believed the 
Apostles' Creed, and all the essential doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. My mind was at rest; and I trusted in God, 
believed on Christ, and prayed in His name. I did not 
adhere to any special sect, nor do I now. It was 
enough for me to be called a Christian, on the ground 
of my belief in Christ as the Saviour of mankind. I 
used to pray in a general way, and had never known 
that my special need was — * Believe on the Lord Jesus 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 87 

Christ, and thou shalt be saved/ Salvation, I thought, 
was something to be good in the future. That is how 
the future tense in the above text is abused by the con- 
verts, especially the intellectual converts of the present 
day in this country. I had many doubts and many dif- 
ficulties in the matter of belief. So many sects, so 
many opinions, so much want of spirituality and much 
shallow talk in the name of religion. All these troubled 
me very much, and I began to see much the same in 
the picture of Christianity as I have been accustomed to 
see in that of the Hindu religion. But all this time I 
was conscious that God was leading me; and I deter- 
mined not to take the opinion of men as my ground of 
belief, and went on reading the Bible only and trusted in 
God's mercy. 

" Some years ago I was brought to the conviction 
that mine was only an intellectual belief — a belief in 
which there was no life. It looked for salvation in the 
future after death; and consequently my soul had not 
' passed from death unto life/ God showed me how 
v^y dangerous my position was, and what a wretched 
and lost sinner I was ; and how necessary it was for me 
to obtain salvation in the present, and not in some fu- 
ture time. I repented long ; I became very restless and 
almost ill, and passed many sleepless nights. The 
Holy Spirit so got hold of me that I could not rest until 
I found salvation then and there. So I prayed earnest- 



88 PANDITA RAMABAI 

ly to God to pardon my sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, 
and let me realize that I had really got salvation through 
Him. I believed God's promise, and took Him at His 
word; and when I had done this, my burden rolled 
away, and I realized that I was forgiven and was freed 
from the power of sin. * The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
ness with our spirit that we are the children of God.' * 
I became very happy after that. There was not a 
shadow of doubt as to my having obtained salvation 
through Jesus Christ. * But as many as received Him 
[a person, not a thing ; not a religion, but a living per- 
son], to them gave He power to become the sons of 
God.' ^ * And this is life eternal, that they might know 
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou 
hast sent.' ^ In the Old Testament God is not revealed 
as Father, but as the Creator, the Mighty God, the 
Judge, the Jehovah. It was left to Jesus in the New 
Testament to reveal the Father. Men talk about God, 
but they cannot know Him except the Son reveal Him.* 
These things are hid from the wise and prudent, but 
God has revealed them unto babes. '^ That is why He 
says, * Except ye be converted, and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' * 
' He that believeth on the Son hath everkisting life.' ^ 
I knew I had everlasting life, i. e., knew God; and 

*Roni. viii. i6. ''John i. 12. 'John xvii. 3. * Matt. xi. 
27. "Matt. xi. 25. "Matt, xviii. 3. ^John iii. 36. 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 89 

the Spirit was sent into my heart, crying ' Abba, 
Father.' ' 

" Last year I happened to read the Life of Amanda 
Smith. She had been a slave in America, and had been 
freed. When she was converted, she shouted and said 
she had been deHvered out of bondage twice — once out 
of slavery, and once from the slavery of sin. And I 
have a right to praise God too ; for I have been first de- 
livered from the slavery of man's opinions, from the 
fear of man which holds so many of my dear people, and 
a second time from the bondage of sin. As I read 
further in this book, where she gives an account of her 
spiritual experience, I felt my need of the abiding pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit in me. 

" I prayed earnestly to God to show me the way, and 
to remove all the hindrances that came in the way of 
my receiving this great blessing. I read in the papers 
that Mr. Gelson Gregson was to hold some special mis- 
sion services in Bombay. I longed to go, but could 
not easily leave my school and be away from Poona. 
I did not know anything about Mr. Gregson, but the 
desire to hear him preach became very strong. I left 
the matter in God's hands, and rested quietly. One 
morning I received an urgent letter from a girl whose 
mother was supposed to be in a dying condition, and 
who wanted very much to see me. The girl urged up- 

*Rom. viii. 15. 



90 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



on me very much to start at once and come to Bombay. 
I did so, recognising in this call the special providence 
of God which was taking me to Bombay in answer to 
my prayer. 

" I heard Mr. Gregson preach his first sermon from 
the text, * I am crucified with Christ ' ^ ; which im- 
pressed me very much. I stayed three days, and at- 
tended the services. The subject was exactly what I 
wanted and needed to know. In April at the Lanouli 
camp meeting I heard Mr. Gregson preach again. He 
preached as one who had received and was filled with 
the Holy Spirit and knew the deep things of God. I 
then opened my heart to a friend, and told her of my 
intense desire for the gift of the Holy Spirit; and we 
together sought a conversation with Mr. Gregson. I 
asked him many questions, which he satisfactorily an- 
swered in the words of Scripture. We prayed then 
that I might receive the Holy Spirit; but it was not 
until the evening of that day that I felt conscious of 
His presence in me. Since then I have received much 
blessing, and am ever grateful to God for showing me 
the way of this blessed life." 

* Gal. ii. 20. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ASKING GREAT THINGS OF GOD. 
" Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it."— Psalm Ixxxi. lo. 

THE camp-meeting is a feature of American 
Christian life, which transplants to India re- 
markably well. Near the summit of the West- 
ern Ghauts, eighty miles from Bombay, nestling in the 
bosom of the mountains, are the Lanouli woods, an 
ideal spot for such a gathering. The situation, amid 
the grandest natural scenery, irresistibly recalls the 
thought that, " as the mountains are round about Je- 
rusalem [Lanouli], so the Lord is round about His 
people." The grove of closely planted trees, which 
forms a perfect shelter from the noonday sun, is situ- 
ated on the breezy hill-side, sufficiently near to the vil- 
lage and station of Lanouli to be convenient, yet far 
enough away to be secluded ; and forms an equally wel- 
come change in the hot season from the moist and ener- 
vating heat of Bombay, or the sultry, hot winds of the 

Deccan. 

91 



92 PANDITA RAMABAI 

To organize here a camp-meeting as an annual East- 
er gathering, was the inception of an earnest Methodist 
preacher, known as " Camp-meeting Osborn " in his 
own land. This servant of God, Rev. W. B. Osborn, 
was located for a time in charge of English work in 
Bombay, some fifteen to twenty years ago. Its or- 
ganization was an inspiration, and it has formed a 
brightly anticipated rallying point for earnest warm- 
hearted Christians of many denominations. Rev. W. 
B. Osborn returned to America soon after; but the 
meeting continued, conducted by various qualified 
brethren, none of whom have been more appreciated as 
a leader than the present presiding Elder of the Poona 
Methodist Church, Rev. Dennis Osborne, akin in name 
and spirit, though not otherwise related to its founder. 

To attend this camp-meeting, whole families migrat- 
ed from Poona and Bombay, and in fewer numbers 
from other parts of Western India, till the grove was 
peopled with fifty to sixty tents. Missionaries and peo- 
ple in business or Government employ, pastors, teach- 
ers, and Bible- women, Brahmin and Parsee converts to 
Christianity, and those of other castes — till it seemed 
like a foretaste of the time when all kindreds, and peo- 
ples, and tongues, shall join in the glad heavenly chorus 
of praise to the Great Redeemer. Many Christian 
schools sent contingents of boys and girls old enough to 
enjoy and profit by such an occasion; and frequently, 



ASKING GREAT THINGS OF GOD 93 

not the least blessed and enduring work was done 
among the young people. 

Few who have spent an Easter Sunday with this as- 
sembly would be likely to forget it. Awakened at dawn 
by the sweet voices of a band of young Christians, sing- 
ing Easter hymns and anthems, seven o'clock found an 
assembly gathered in the large tent for a short and 
bright Sunday-school session in which young and old 
joined. At nine a prayer meeting; at ten breakfast, 
served with simplicity in another large tent. At eleven 
a love feast (including a communion service), when 
hearty, bright, and cheering testimonies were given in 
English, Marathi, Gujarathi, Hindustani, and occas- 
ionally others of India's many tongues; and so on 
throughout the day. In the large tent something was 
always going on. When^ the English attenders were 
resting, the Indian Christians were having a turn in 
their own tongues. The large tent was wonderfully 
expansive, and after sundown became a roof only; for 
no walls would have held the Sunday evening congre- 
gation, augmented as it was by large contingents of 
hearers from the railway settlement, which forms the 
European quarter of the Lanouli village. 

The camp-meeting of 1896 was the last. By Easter 
of 1897 India was in the grip of the terrible plague and 
famine; and it was not felt wise or right to hold it. 
Three years have passed, and the hand of God is still 



94 PANDITA RAMABAI 

heavy in judgment: when it shall be lifted we may 
confidently expect that the voice of the assembled multi- 
tude will again make the woods of Lanouli vocal with 
songs of praise to their risen and reigning Lord. 

In 1896 one of the chief speakers was a native evan- 
gelist, who was so full of zeal and holy joy that it was 
difficult for him to leave off preaching and expounding 
long enough to eat ! If he was not in the rostrum ad- 
dressing a congregation, he would be surrounded by a 
private group of Indian Christians, and either in Eng- 
lish or through an interpreter was continually making 
known the way to be a joyful Christian to an eager 
group of listeners. 

Ramabai was present at this camp-meeting, with a 
fine group of Christian girls and young women. Sev- 
eral with note-book and pencil showed that they under- 
stood and appreciated the opportunity here afforded 
them. An experience befel Ramabai here, indicating 
in a remarkable degree how the Lord was preparing her 
for a greater work : this must be told, however, in her 
own words. She says: 

" This camp-meeting proved to be an occasion of 
special joy to me, as I was accompanied by fifteen of 
my own girls who were believers in the Lord Jesus, and 
had confessed Him before the public as their Saviour. 
Amid the troubles and trials that faced me at that 
time, I rejoiced much to think that the Lord had given 



ASKING GREAT THINGS OF GOD 95 

me fifteen immortal souls whom I could call my spirit- 
ual children. One day, early in the morning, I went out 
to a quiet place in the woods, where I saw the sun rising 
in all its glory. Then I thought of the Sun of Right- 
eousness, and wished much that my people who were 
sitting in darkness should be willing to open their eyes 
and hearts and see Him rise in all His heavenly glory. 
At that time my heart was full of joy and peace, and I 
offered thanks to the Heavenly Father for having given 
me fifteen children ; and I was by the Spirit led to pray 
that the Lord would be so gracious as to square the 
number of my spiritual children, increasing the number 
to two hundred and twenty-five, before the next camp- 
meeting takes place. Every circumstance was against 
the very thought. For, in the first place, no more than 
sixty or sixty-five girls at the most could be admitted 
in my school. Then the number of my school-girls 
was but forty-nine, and some of them were to leave dur- 
ing the summer holidays. Things were going very 
much against my school, and I did not know where to 
get even fifty girls for my institution. My mind began 
to be doubtful, and I asked the Lord if it were ad- 
visable for me to venture to pray such a prayer, and if it 
were even possible for me to have so many girls in my 
school. I then prayed to God to give me a clear word 
about it, and He graciously gave me the following 
words : * Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh ; 



96 PANDITA RAMABAI 

is there anything too hard for me ? ' * This proved to 
be a rebuke to my unbeHeving soul, as well as an as- 
surance of the great things which God meant to do for 
me. I noted those words in my note-book; put down 
the date on which I claimed two hundred and twenty- 
five souls from God on the strength of this assurance ; 
and waited for Him to fulfil His promise in His own 
good time." 

It will thus be seen that Ramabai's spiritual experi- 
ence was continually deepening and widening. She 
had asked great things of God; and having received 
great answers, was hungering and thirsting for more. 
Her increase of faith and enjoyment of the Holy Spirit's 
leadings, following on a path of obedience, enabled her 
to testify from a full cup to others. She longed that 
her own people who had professed the name of Christ, 
the members of the Indian Christian Churches, should* 
be led out into a fuller life of service for their Lord. 
To a few who were privileged with her confidence, and 
especially to one sweet missionary woman ' who had 
been used of God in leading her into some of these 
deeper experiences, Ramabai poured forth her longings. 
This friend expressed her belief that God would have 
Ramabai give her school over into the hands of others, 
and herself do the work of an evangelist, proclaiming 
to Indian Christians all over the land from the fulness 
• 'Jer. xxxii. 27. ^ The late Mrs. Jennie Fuller. 



ASKING GREAT THINGS OF GOD 97 

of her own experience what God was willing to do for 
those who would trust Him fully; and pressing upon 
them their responsibility in carrying the Gospel to the 
millions of heathen all around. This friend seemed to 
apprehend that God had some purpose for Ramabai be- 
yond the training of the fifty girls at the Sharada Sadan. 
He had ; but it was not to be in the relinquishment of 
her former work, but in its fuller and more complete 
development. 

Ramabai became quite willing to follow in any path 
of service of this kind, if the Lord should lead. She 
began to prepare herself for a life of itinerant hardship. 
She felt she should relinquish her salary, and trust God 
for her own needs. Towards the autumn of that year, 
1896, she says, alluding to her camp-meeting experi- 
ence: 

" Six months passed away from that time, and our 
work went on as usual. There was no increase in the 
number of my pupils ; on the contrary, the number went 
down to forty-one, and those Christian girls whom I 
had told in April that God was going to square their 
number before the next camp-meeting, were perhaps 
beginning to doubt in their mind as to whether I had 
not been carried away by my imaginations, and not in- 
spired by the Spirit, to have prayed such a prayer whose 
fulfilment seemed to be next to impossible. I knew 
nothing of the famine in Central India, nor that I could 



98 PANDITA RAMABAI 

get any girls fom that part of the country. In October 
I heard of the terrible famine in the Central Provinces, 
and received my call from God to go there and rescue 
some of the young widows who were starving to death. 
It was not until the last week of December that I had 
the courage to obey the call. There were many ob- 
stacles. I was doubtful whether I could get any of the 
kind of girl- widows whom I could admit into my school. 
The next chief difficulty was the want of place to shel- 
ter the girls, and of money to maintain them, even if 
they were to be had. So I did not venture at first to 
step out of Poona ; but my conscience began to trouble 
me for not having obeyed the call at once, and I was 
obliged to leave my comfortable nest and go." 

Human reason might well have thought there was 
cause for this delay and hesitation on Ramabai's part. 
Many would have said, " I will go if God sends me the 
money." But God's way with Ramabai was to make 
the obedience the test of blessing. There had been at 
that time some difficulty with regard to the remittances 
from America which supported the school, some mis- 
carriage of money, delay or decrease in amount, which 
had necessitated diminished expenditure ; and when the 
Lord thus called Ramabai to go to the Central Prov- 
inces and rescue three hundred girls, she tells that she 
had but a few rupees in hand. She asked where she 
should get the money ; but felt that God would have her 



ASKING GREAT THINGS OF GOD 99 

go on, and the money would come. God had provided 
the money, but He was testing her faith. As soon as 
it was known that Ramabai had started in search of 
widows left destitute by the famine, one of His servants 
in Bombay undertook the expense of their transit to 
Poona. Another called and left a hundred rupees at 
the Sharada Sadan for current expenditure; and from 
one source and another money flowed in as needed for 
the work to which Ramabai was thus committed. 



l.efC. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FAMINE OF iSgy, AND THE RESCUE OF STARVING 

WIDOWS. 

" By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O 
Lord of our salvation." — Psalm Ixv. 5. 

RAMABAFS doubts as to whether any widows 
of the kind suitable for her school (i. e., high- 
caste widows) could be obtained in the famine 
districts, were soon set at rest when she reached the 
spot. She was accompanied by a sensible, motherly, 
Indian Christian Bible-woman; and as Ramabai went 
from place to place, gathering up the girls, she sent 
them in parties of from ten to twenty at a time by this 
Bible-woman to Poona. 

Perhaps the most difficult part of the work was the 
reception and feeding of these poor creatures after their 
arrival. It was heroically faced by Ramabai's helpers 
in Poona, led by Soonderbai Powar, and ably seconded 
by the Christian girls of the Sharada Sadan, who de- 
voted themselves to the cleansing and civilizing of these 
poor victims of starvation. All were miserably dirty; 
many diseased — most were suffering from sore heads, 

100 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 loi 

sore mouths, and other complaints caused by starvation ; 
many were mere skeletons, and all clamouring for food, 
which to have given them in sufficient quantity to ap- 
pease their hunger would have caused their death. ^ The 
older women and girls were the most trying, and a few 
ran away. Added to this, two or three rebellious spirits 
among the former pupils became troublesome, and 
seyeral attempts were made to burn down the premises, 
without any clue being found to the perpetrators of the 
mischief ; thus the position of affairs may be better im- 
agined than described. Satan found an opportunity 
for harassing ; but the Lord, who is over all, over-ruled 
wonderfully, and preserved from the threatened danger. 
Among those suspected of incendiarism was a Raj- 
put woman, who had been acting as servant to Rama- 
bai. From this woman Ramabai had discovered, to her 
horror, that the practice of infanticide was still prevalent 
in Rajputana to an alarming extent. She recounted to 
Ramabai as many as eight or ten cases in her own 
family, in which girl-children had been exposed or 
strangled to their death to avoid the expense of their 
maintenance and marriage. A few weeks before start- 
ing for the famine field Ramabai had mentioned this to 
the Convention of the Women's Christian Temperance 
Union, gathered at Poona, and had spoken of the ter- 
rible hardness of heart the cruel custom of infanticide 
engendered in those who practised it. She was in des- 



I02 PANDITA RAMABAI 

pair, she said, of influencing this Rajput woman, noth- 
ing good seemed to touch her. It was natural, there- 
fore, that she should be suspected of these attempts to 
burn the home that had sheltered her. There was, how- 
ever, no proof ; but after she and one or two others had 
been removed the trouble ceased. 

Aftfer some sixty girls and women had been gathered, 
Ramabai returned to Poona for a few days. While 
there she wrote a rapid sketch of the way she had been 
led to enter this work of saving widows, prefacing it 
with the story of her own early experiences of starva- 
tion in 1877 (as related in Chapter I.). She sent the 
story to the Bombay Guardian, a Christian weekly 
newspaper published in Bombay, then under the editor- 
ial care of my husband and myself. In this narrative, 
Ramabai told expressly of the fearful moral danger to 
which young girls were exposed in relief camps and 
poor-houses, and of the agents of evil who were abroad 
seeking to lure them to destruction. 

It was a pathetic story, but would make my pages too 
long to quote it in full. The concluding portion, how- 
ever, will help to elucidate this part of my narrative, and 
must be given here. Ramabai said : " My sympathies 
are excited by the needs of young girl-widows especially 
at this time. To let them go to the relief camps and 
poor-houses, or allow them to wander in the streets and 
on the highways means their eternal destruction. 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 103 

" Ever since I have seen these girls in the famine dis- 
tricts—some fallen into the hands of wicked people; 
some ruined for life and turned out by their cruel mas- 
ters owing to bad diseases, to die a miserable death in 
a hopeless, helpless manner; some being treated in the 
hospitals, only to be taken back into the pits of sin, there 
to await a cruel death ; some bearing the burdens of sin, 
utterly lost to the sense of shame and humanity — hell 
has become a horrible reality to me, and my heart is 
bleeding for those daughters of fond parents who have 
died leaving them orphans. Who with a mother's heart 
and a sister's love can rest without doing everything in 
her power to save at least a few of the girls who can 
yet be saved from the hands of the evil ones ? 

" The Father, who is a very present help in trouble, 
has enabled me to get sixty widows, forty-seven of 
whom will go to school to study, and others will work. 
To go to work to get these widows, to fetch them here 
from Central India, and to feed and to clothe them, is 
an expensive business. Harder still is the work of 
civilizing them and teaching them the habits of cleanli- 
ness. Some are little better than brute beasts. The 
filthy habits they have acquired during this period of 
famine have become second nature with them. It will 
take a long time to civilize and teach them. We can 
do all things in the power of the Lord. The Lord has 
put it into my mind to save three hundred girls out of 



104 PANDITA RAMABAI 

the famine districts, and I shall go to work in His name. 
The funds sent to me by my friends in America are 
barely enough to feed and educate fifty girls ; and sev- 
eral people are asking me how I am going to support 
all these girls, who may come from Central India. 
Besides their food and clothing, new dormitories and 
dining rooms must be built. Our present school-house 
is not large enough to hold more than one hundred girls 
at the most. And how are these emergencies to be met ? 
" I do not know ; but the Lord knows what I need. I 
can say with the psalmist — * I am poor and needy, yet 
the Lord thinketh upon me ' ; and He has promised that 
' Ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the 
name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously 
with you ; and My people shall never be ashamed.' My 
girls and I are quite ready to forego all our comforts, 
give up luxuries, and live as plainly as we can. We 
shall be quite contented to have only one meal of com- 
mon coarse food daily, if necessary; and so long as we 
have a little room or a seed of grain left in this house, 
we shall try and help our sisters who are starving. It 
seems a sin to live in this good house, and eat plenty 
of good food, and be warmly clothed, while thousands 
of our fellow-creatures are dying of hunger, and are 
without shelter. If all of us do our part faithfully, 
God is faithful to fulfil His promises, and will send us 
the help we need at this time." 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 105 

This narrative touched many hearts. It was reprint- 
ed from the Bombay Guardian, and edition after edition 
disposed of. Missionaries and others bought it in 
quantities to send home to their friends in England and 
America. They declared it to be the most keen de- 
scription of famine suffering which had yet been depic- 
ted, and it proved to be no small factor in rousing sym- 
pathy for India's sufferings in the hearts of Western 

Christians. 

After Ramabai had launched the story and had at- 
tended to necessary business in Poona, she started again 
to the Central Provinces for more girls, determined not 
to rest till her three hundred were saved. Within a 
fortnight, however, she was called back to Poona by 
telegraph. Fresh trouble had arisen. The bubonic 
plague, which had been raging in Bombay for several 
months, had spread to Poona. The authorities, at their 
wits' end to cope with it, were introducing stringent 
measures here and there. A strict system of inspection of 
dwellings was instituted. The magistrate sent eight- 
een of the famine victims who were suffering from 
some ailment or other to the hospital for observation, 
and ordered that the number of the permanent inmates 
of the Sharada Sadan should not be increased. This 
caused the stoppage of the buildings which had been 
commenced on the Sharada Sadan compound with a 
view to housing the fresh pupils. 



io6 PANDITA RAMABAI 

Here was a dilemma! But Ramabai found a way 
out. She hired a dozen tents, and sent the whole estab- 
lishment out into the open country twenty miles away. 
Soonderbai went in charge of the girls, and Ramabai 
remained herself in Poona for awhile. This could only 
be a temporary arrangement. What was to follow? 

In this difficulty Ramabai's thoughts reverted to her 
farm at Khedgaon and the piece of rocky waste land 
there. She cabled to America for permission to utilize 
this as a temporary home for the famine-stricken — -for 
the farm lands had been duly placed in trust under the 
same board of trustees which held the Sharada Sadan 
property. Permission was received in three days, and 
the famine girls were transferred from the tents to grass 
huts erected on this waste land at the farm. A large 
barn was speedily in course of erection, with a view to 
forming some sort of shelter in the coming rainy 
season. 

When the rains began in June, all the intelligent girls 
of school age who had sufficiently recovered from 
the effects of starvation were transferred to a house at 
Poona, near enough to the Sadan for school purposes, 
and their education commenced. The remainder, in- 
cluding older women up to forty years of age, were con- 
tinued at Khedgaon under the best shelter possible. 

A few very small children, some almost babies, had 
come in from the famine districts with the older girls 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 107 

and women. Ramabai appealed to the Sharada Sadan 
pupils for volunteer mothers. The appeal was eagerly 
responded to, and very tenderly these poor little starved 
waifs were cared for by those to whom the responsibility 
was entrusted. One very bright Christian girl of fourteen 
picked out the most forlorn-looking baby of all. When 
rallied by her companions for choosing such a monkey- 
faced child, Subhodra replied, " Not to take a pretty and 
attractive child, but to take a wretched and unattractive 
one is love." This dear girl, it was truly remarked 
at the time, had learnt well one of the divinest of les- 
sons. 

Subhodra herself, when a baby, had been thrown out 
into the road to perish by a heartless Hindu father. 
She was taken in and cared for by a neighbour, and at 
his death came with his young widow to the Sharada 
Sadan. She was then a bright little girl of seven or 
eight, brimming over with fun and mischief. She 
proved a clever child, made good progress with her 
studies, and, best of all, became a true Christian. Her 
relatives, however, kept track of her, and began to agi- 
tate for her to be returned to them, in order that they 
might get her married. One of her brothers actually 
came to Poona to fetch her; but time had flown faster 
than he had reckoned on, and when he saw his sister he 
found she had passed the age prior to which the Brah- 
mins of his caste consider it a duty to give their girls 



io8 PANDITA RAMABAI 

in marriage. To Ramabai's great joy he was there- 
fore obliged to return without the fulfilment of his 
object, and Subhodra is still an affectionate and useful 
little daughter to Ramabai. 

The work of rescue went on all through those months 
of 1897 till the autumn harvest ended the famine. 
Gungabai, Ramabai's faithful Bible-woman, visited 
poor-houses, relief camps, and mission stations, in the 
affected districts, and altogether gathered from five to 
six hundred starving women and children. After all 
the girls and women really suitable for the Sharada 
Sadan had been selected, Ramabai passed on the re- 
mainder to various mission orphanages. She found 
herself with just the three hundred God had told her to 
take. 

Ramabai greatly rejoiced in all these as her own God- 
given children, whom, free from the interference of 
bigoted parents or guardians, she could instruct in the 
way of life. All the available spiritual help she could 
obtain was pressed into the service of teaching the 
Word of God to these as they returned to health and 
strength. Ramabai believed that God was going to 
answer her prayer and give her that measure of spirit- 
ual blessing, which she had, as it were, seen in vision, 
at the Lanouli camp-meeting. The Spirit of God 
worked with the means used. Ten months after she 
started out in faith to the famine districts she was able 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 109 

to report that ninety of these girls had given their hearts 
to God, and were showing signs of a real change of 
heart by serving and helping other girls, by their self- 
forgetfulness and love one toward another. As these 
girls professed salvation, they were taken to the river 
by Ramabai, and baptized by a missionary in the name 
of the Triune God. 

Miss Parsons, of the Poona and India Village Mis- 
sion, who spent a month the same autumn with Rama- 
bai, helping to care for and instruct these rescued fam- 
ine victims, thus records her experiences among them: 

" The stories connected with some of these dear 
women and children are sad in the extreme. A young 
Brahmin woman about eighteen years of age has found 
a home here with her little boy ten months old. I asked 
her why she came. * Oh,* said she, * I got up one 
morning and found my husband had deserted me. I 
saw nothing more of him after that.* Praise the Lord ! 
since she has come she has accepted Christ. Another 
knew very little of what love or home-life meant. Mar- 
ried young, and not being strong, she suffered a great 
deal. One day her husband said, ' I've had enough of 
this ; you're never able to cook my rice. You can go.' 
The poor girl was too ill to move, however ; so he moved 
— deserted her, and has been unheard of since. After 
some weeks she was able to walk a little, so went to her 
mother's home ; but was there told that they had noth- 



no PANDITA RAMABAI 

ing for her to eat, and so she must go ; and while wan- 
dering about seeking food was picked up by Ramabai. 
Another was one of two wives ; and being the younger 
of the two, she fared badly. The husband used to get 
the other wife to beat her; so much so, that she ran 
away and was eventually brought here, where she is 
very happy and contented, and will, when won for 
Christ, be a very useful woman. She is very quick, 
bright, and capable; and it is a great pleasure to have 
anything to do with her. 

" Another is a little widow about nine or ten years of 
age. Her husband died when she was five, and she 
has had anything but a happy life since. Indeed, such 
a thing as love or happiness is not in the province of a 
great many of these dear little people; and one just 
longs to be a comfort and joy to them. This little 
widow is very quick — learns the hymns very quickly; 
remembers the Bible stories wonderfully; and best of 
all, has accepted Christ as her Saviour. It is very 
touching to hear this dear child pray. She rises early, 
and she always prays aloud: you can hear her pouring 
out her little heart to the Lord, and thanking Him for 
giving her such friends as the Christians. One day, 
after I had been praying with some of the sick girls, a 
voice from near-by was heard — *0 bai (sister), do 
come and pray for me. Last night my hand was so 
bad I could get no sleep. I sat up, and three times 



THE FAMINE OF 1897 



III 



asked Jesus to give me sleep ; but I can't understand it 
a bit. He didn't let me sleep at all. Do ask Him to 
give me sleep to-night; I am so tired.' I prayed for 
sleep for her, and next morning her beaming face told 
the tale. * Well, Anandi ! ' said I, * did Jesus hear 
prayer last night ? ' ' Yes ! ' she said, ' and I slept all 
night.' 

" I think the most beautiful work of grace I have 
ever seen in any child's heart was the following. One 
evening we were late in going to have prayers with the 
girls. When we got to the door, we found dear little 
Anandi had gathered all the women and children to- 
gether, and was praying aloud with them, and they 
repeating the prayer after her. How the heart of our 
Father God must have rejoiced as He heard such re- 
quests and thanksgiving as ascended from that room! 
* Our kind heavenly Father, we do thank You for 
bringing us here, giving us such dear friends — and es- 
pecially for Ramabai. Oh, our kind Father, those of 
us who love You, we want You to keep our hearts very 
clean ; and those who don't love You, quickly clean their 
hearts, and keep them clean by Your Holy Spirit dwell- 
ing in them. Oh, our kind Father, take care of all of 
us in this Home and the Poona Home to-night; bless 
all who look after us, and abundantly bless Ramabai 
and Soonderbai, who take such care of us. Now 
Father, we thank You for Jesus, and for what Jesus 



112 PANDIT A RAMABAI 

promises to do for us. Take care of us to-night, and 
forgive us wherein we have given You pain to-day, for 
Jesus' sake. Amen.' 

" I praise the Lord for the privilege of hearing such 
a real, simple prayer; and I am sure our home people 
will join me in offering a big praise note for * what God 
hath wrought ' in less than a year in some hearts out 
here. 

" Truly He is ' able to do exceeding abundantly above 
all that we ask or think. '^ To Him be the glory." 

^ £ph. iii. 20. 



CHAPTER X. 

" MUKTI " — THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 

"The Lord thy God: He it is that doth go with thee."— 

Deut. xxxi. 6. 

THE hand of the Lord has been remarkably seen 
in raising up helpers for Ramabai in the great 
work He has put into her hands. The hearty 
way in which the older girls, even some of the Hindus, 
threw themselves into the work of caring for the famine 
girls, was delightful and inspiring. The conversion 
and baptism of groups of the new girls from time to 
time had a reflex influence for good upon the older ones. 
Many who had been halting between two opinions came 
out boldly for Christ, and a holy enthusiasm seemed to 
pervade the whole establishment. 

After the girls had been gathered at Khedgaon, and 
all their material wants provided for, a vision opened 
out to Ramabai of what such a settlement might mean to 
the country around, from an evangelistic point of view. 
Here, she thought, is a great missionary opportunity for 
some fully qualified and consecrated Christian woman 
to come and live among these girls, lead them to the 
Saviour, and train them in the Word of God, so that 

113 



114 PANDITA RAMABAI 

they shall be fitted to carry the Gospel to all the region 
round about, where no missionary work has ever been 
carried on. Ramabai spoke of the need and the oppor- 
tunity to several whom she thought suitable, but none 
responded. She and her immediate helpers made it a 
matter of constant prayer ; and God Himself called the 
one He had chosen for the post. 

Miss Minnie F. Abrams came to India in 1887 as a 
missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 
Bombay she had varied experience, both of visiting the 
women and caring for children. In 1895 she relin- 
quished the care of the girls' boarding school in Bom- 
bay to devote herself to the work of village evangeliza- 
tion. She became a deaconess of that Church, and was 
duly set apart for this work. Miss Abrams aimed to 
reach the women in those villages, where the Gospel 
had already been preached to the men. With a tent, 
and two or three Bible- women, she itinerated from place 
to place in the villages around Poona, coming into the 
city each year for the rainy season. She came into 
Poona as usual at this period in 1897, and employed 
herself in caring for a number of older famine widows, 
some of whom were sent her by Ramabai. When the 
end of the rains came in October, she was planning to 
leave this work in other hands, and was making ar- 
rangements for another camping season. 

One morning at this time she awakened earlier than 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 115 

usual, and as she lay with the duties of the day in her 
mind, a voice seemed to say to her, " Go to Khedgaon." 
The impression deepened on her mind, and she went. 
Ramabai was absent, but Miss Abrams surveyed the 
place, and saw the girls and women gathered there. 
She returned to Poona in the evening wondering why 
she had been sent there. She said as much to the Bible- 
woman who had accompanied her. The woman re- 
plied : " Who knows ? Perhaps one of those tracts 
you gave at the station had a message for some one ! " 

The following morning, Sunday, Miss Abrams was 
again awakened early. In telling the experience of this 
hour, she said reverently that it was as if the Lord 
Himself came and commissioned her to go to Khedgaon 
and take up the office of spiritual teacher to that flock 
of girls and women. The holy influence of that hour 
followed her all day. The sermon at the morning meet- 
ing was singularly appropriate, and confirmed to her 
the commission she had received. 

The next day she went to the Sharada Sadan, and 
found that Ramabai had gone on her final visit to the 
Central Provinces on rescue business. Miss Abrams 
opened her heart to Soonderbai Powar, and as she told 
of what she believed the Lord had called her to, the 
tears ran down Soonderbai's cheeks and she said: 
" This is what Ramabai and I have for months been 
praying for." When Ramabai returned, her practical 



ii6 PANDITA RAMABAI 

question was, " When can you come ? " In a fortnight 
all difficulties had been overcome — Miss Abrams was 
established at Mukti, and commencing the work which 
has grown so remarkably under her care. 

I must mention here the case of Ramabai's clerk, or 
chief steward. He was a Brahmin of good education, 
a member of the sect of reformed Hindus known as 
Brahmos. He had been in Ramabai's employ for 
several years. At one time, when the tide of Brahmin 
disfavour was setting strongly against Ramabai, this 
man acted against her interests in a way for which most 
employers would have dismissed him. Ramabai, how- 
ever, retained his services, though obliged to withdraw 
her most confidential work from his hands. But, as the 
years went on, Ramabai's faithful life and teaching led 
him to see that there must be something in the religion 
she professed. Then the Lord dealt with him. His 
wife became an early victim of the plague at Poona. 
And when a large group of famine girls were baptized 
in 1897, more than making up the number promised to 
Ramabai at the Lanouli camp-meeting, Mr. Gadre came 
out also as a believer in Christ, and was baptized with 
his younger children. 

Miss Abrams contributed a graphic account, to an 
Indian paper, of some of the scenes that occurred in 
connection with the early conversion of the girls in the 
first weeks of her residence at Mukti. She spoke of a 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 117 

great and general awakening that had taken place in 
both the Poona and Mukti Homes. This revival pre- 
vailed not only among those who had been rescued from 
famine, but reached to a goodly number of the widows 
who were previously in the Sharada Sadan. It was an 
outcome of special services held by Rev. W. W. Bruere 
— first, for ten days in the Poona Home, when one hun- 
dred and sixteen women and child-widows were bap- 
tized. He then went on to Khedgaon ; and what hap- 
pened there we must give in Miss Abrams' own words : 

" The women had been prepared for these services by 
constant daily religious teaching, ever since they entered 
the Home. The older widows, and consequently those 
most hardened in sin, are living at the farm in Khed- 
gaon. But the Spirit of God is able to transform even 
hardened sinners. He was present in great power 
from the beginning of the service. At the close of three 
days' services when Mr. Bruere was called away, sixty- 
seven had been converted. The meetings were con- 
tinued; Mr. Bruere returned; and as the crowning 
event, November 15th, the baptismal service took place. 

" It was a rare sight when seventeen bullock carts, 
crowded with seven and eight women in each, started 
out for the Bheema River, five and a half miles distant 
from the farm. Songs of joy arose one after another, 
as they slowly went along, methinks mingling with the 
joy around the throne when sinners are converted. 



ii8 PANDITA RAMABAI 

" A tent was pitched on the bank of the river, which 
served as a dressing room. A short service was held 
by Rev. W. W. Bruere, after which the baptisms took 
place. Pandita Ramabai's secretary, Krishnabai/ and 
the writer, stood in the water and helped the candidates 
to enter and return to the shore. One of the school- 
mistresses on the shore called out the names of those to 
be baptized. It was very interesting to hear each one 
repeat with the minister, ' In the Name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.* The happy 
faces and frequent expressions of praise showed that the 
Spirit teaches His children alike the world over, for 
these women had never come in contact with many 
Christians, revivals, or baptismal services. One hun- 
dred and eight women and girls, and one boy of twelve 
years of age, were baptized. 

" When Pandita was taking the names of those who 
were asking for baptism, a little girl of six years tugged 
away at my dress and said, * Bai, bai, mere nam likna 
(Bai, bai, write my name).' This dear little child, 
who prays much and gives evidence that she really loves 
Jesus, was carried out into the water. Mr. Bruere 
took her into his arms and put her under the water. 
Jesus took such in His arms and blessed them. 

" I should like to tell of how the Spirit led many to 

*One of the former converted widows who had been acting 
as Bible-woman with Miss Abrams for some time previously. 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 119 

confess their sins of stealing, lying, quarrelling, and 
fighting; and many with tears confessed their idolatry. 
One woman arose to speak. She covered her eyes, and 
began to pray in the Marathi language, but soon broke 
forth in her own language (Hindustani) with the con- 
fession of her sins, enumerating them one after another. 
Her whole frame was convulsed with weeping as she 
pleaded the merits of Christ's sufferings on her behalf. 
Then she broke forth into loud praises to Jesus, for 
salvation, the forgiveness of sin. It was a solemn yet 
a joyous time. 

" When Pandita was bringing widows from the Cent- 
ral Provinces, a deaf and dumb woman insisted on 
coming. Pandita refused to bring her. She came and 
sat in the train. They made her understand that she 
could not learn in school, hence could not be taken. 
She told them by signs that she would grind, cook, 
wash clothes, scrub, etc. She literally refused to leave 
the train; and at the last minute Pandita laughed and 
bought her a ticket. She has been true to her word and 
works cheerfully. 

" She always preserves a reverent attitude during 
worship. When the women were asking Pandita for 
baptism, she persisted in having her name written. 
Pandita tried to put her aside, but again she was per- 
sistent. One day she arose to testify. We all felt 
God's presence as she stood in silent eloquence before 



120 PANDITA RAMABAI 

God. The girls said aloud, * Mookkie knows God as 
well as we.' On two occasions she tried to speak and 
made a low sound. She received baptism with the 
others. While the services were going on, one day she 
brought two children to the altar, closed their eyes, and 
then closed her own in prayer. All who have con- 
tributed toward this famine work will rejoice at this 
bountiful harvest of souls.'* 

Ramabai rejoiced so at these spiritual developments 
that she said she could not wait for another camp- 
meeting at Lanouli, she must have one of her own at 
Khedgaon. Accordingly she issued invitations; and, 
in response, a goodly number of missionaries and In- 
dian Christians gathered in December, 1897, to praise 
the Lord with her for all His goodness. Those who 
attended it spoke of it as a most favoured time. It in- 
cluded a- dedication service of the new settlement to 
God, by the name of Mukti,^ i. e., salvation. The large 
barn served for the meetings, and the visitors camped 
out in grass huts. By this time arrangements had 
been made for a permanent settlement, and ground 
was laid out for a large building. Ramabai gratefully 
dedicated the whole to the Lord, and called the place 
** Mukti " in reference to Isaiah Ix. 18 : " Thou shalt 
call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise." 

The ten years for which the Ramabai circles in 
^ Pronounced Mooktie. 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 121 

America had pledged their help was to expire in March, 
1898, and Ramabai's American friends had been urging 
her to come over and help to devise some way for con- 
serving the interest in the work and reconstructing the 
Association, in view of its great recent developments. 

Ramabai had hitherto seen no possibility of leaving 
her post, but had gone on in faith, feeling that if the 
Lord wanted her in America He would Himself open 
the way. Now, Miss Abrams' capable help being pro- 
vided; Mr. Cadre's conversion more than doubling his 
usefulness to the institutions; with Soonderbai Powar 
in full charge of the Sharada Sadan — Ramabai felt 
clear to go. 

My husband and I spent a day at Khedgaon early in 
January, 1898. We happened on the very day Ramabai 
was leaving for her visit to America, a day of farewells. 
It was affecting to see how genuine was the grief of 
large numbers of these newly-rescued girls and women, 
when at the close of the afternoon meeting in the barn 
they came up one at a time to receive a farewell em- 
brace from the only real friend many of them had ever 
known. It was a long day ; the train did not leave till 
near midnight. About a hundred of the older girls 
were permitted to remain when the others retired for 
the night ; and with the teachers and a few visitors from 
Poona, all sat out in the bright moonlight and pleasant 
cool air of that January evening while Ramabai gave 



122 PANDIT A RAMABAI 

her farewell counsels. Her progress to the station, 
about a quarter of a mile distant, reminded me of noth- 
ing so much as a swarm of ants carrying a cherished 
trophy up the wall, a frequent scene in India. There 
were girls in front of Ramabai, behind her and at each 
side, all pressing to get as near as they could, till Rama- 
bai seemed to be literally carried along in the midst of 
the crowd. How gladly they would all have accom- 
panied her to America! 

It had long been a cherished plan in Ramabai's mind 
to send some of her specially bright pupils of suitable 
character to America for further education and train- 
ing, with a view to their helping her more effectively 
in the future of the Sharada Sadan, or of carrying on 
similar work among the vast and needy masses in other 
parts of India. From her own experiences she believed 
that such training would be of immense benefit to them 
in cultivating independence and individuality of char- 
acter. Acting on this belief, she sent three girls to 
America in 1897, and took two others with her on this 
journey ; her own daughter, who had been in England 
for eighteen months, joined her mother on the way, and 
went on to America with her. 

Manorama's education had already been generously 
provided for. In one of her recent Reports, Ramabai 
tells how this came about. She says : ** When I was 
about to start from the United States to undertake the 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 123 

work for Hindu widows, a Christian lady, quite un- 
known to me, came to see me in Philadelphia. She 
was led by God to help me in some way. I did not 
know when I first met her what a faithful friend God 
had raised up for me in her. After hearing a little of 
my story and what I needed, the lady before finishing 
her call placed one hundred dollars in my hand and 
promised to pay all expenses of my daughter's educa- 
tion. This incident occurred nearly twelve years ago. 
I am very glad to mention gratefully that this good 
lady has kept her promise, and has been paying my 
daughter's expenses for the last eleven years. God be 
praised for such help, and for the helper! But for 
this help I would not have been able to throw myself 
heart and soul into this work. God has freed my mind 
from one other care. I was seeking for a Christian 
home for my daughter while she stays in America for 
her education. God has given me another great friend 
in Mrs. Emma S. Roberts, Principal of the A. M. 
Chesbrough Seminary, North Chili, N. Y. She not 
only cares for my daughter, but has undertaken to sup- 
port and educate five young widows, former pupils of 
the Sharada Sadan, who were sent to America for edu- 
cation." 

These girls are making good progress. Tungabai, 
who had studied Sanskrit, Marathi, and 'English at 
home, is reading Greek and Latin, and will take up the 



124 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



sciences. Her thought is to estabHsh a school similar to 
the Sadan in the southern part of India, and thus will the 
influence of the Sharada Sadan continue to spread. These 
girls, having tasted the bitterness of child-widowhood, 
could tell many a sad story. Chumpabai, for example, 
had been made to fast so long that one day hunger 
overcame fear and prudence ; she attempted to help her- 
self to a little of the porridge cooking over the fire : her 
sister-in-law, discovering it, tried to pour the scalding 
hot porridge down her throat. Yessoobai exclaims 
again and again, " How can you be so kind to a poor 
widow ? " Nermaddabai was a widow at five ; and, 
when first an inmate of the Sadan, she would shrink and 
crouch with fear before any one approaching her. 
Now she is friendly with all, and is making fine prog- 
ress in her studies. Jewoobai, who scarcely under- 
stood a word of English when she left India, now 
speaks it quite well, writes a clear, bold hand, is quick 
to see and to learn, desires to know how to do every- 
thing, and promises to be an invaluable helper to Rama- 
bai. 

Ramabai received a warm welcome on her arrival in 
America. At the Annual Meeting of the Ramabai As- 
sociation the Executive Committee disbanded; but a 
Committee was formed, including a number of the old 
workers, with a desirable infusion of new friends. Mrs. 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 125 

Judith Andrews, the President of the Executive Com- 
mittee, continued in office with all her former zeal and 
energy. Before disbanding, the former Committee put 
it upon record that those who withdrew from the work 
did so from no lack of confidence or interest in Ramabai, 
nor from any lack of faith in the future. They tes- 
tified to the harmonious way in which the work had 
been carried on, and wished Ramabai a hearty God- 
speed. The new Committee stood pledged to work 
on the same lines, to support the Sharada Sadan as 
before, with no time limit, and to encourage Rama- 
bai in the God-given developments of the work at 
Mukti. 

Ramabai's address to the Annual Meeting was 
throughout a happy inspiration. Here are a few ex- 
tracts : 

" You have heard the reports of the school which you 
started in India nine years ago. . . . You see the first 
scholar of that school standing before you; she has 
learned a lesson there — it is to thank and praise God. 
For this work has not been done by human strength 
alone. The Eternal God is behind it, and at the foun- 
dation of it ; and as there is no end to Him, there will be 
no end to His work. . . 

" In these nine years we have erected a monument — 
a monument to the saints. Let us call this All Saints' 



126 PANDITA RAMABAI 

Day ! It is that to me ; and I thank God for the saints 
He has given me for my friends. There are these dear 
departed friends who are, no more in this world; but I 
do not mourn for them as those who have no hope. 
This Sharada Sadan which stands in Poona is a monu- 
ment to honour their memory, and also to the honour 
of those saints who live here in the Church militant — 
you, all of you, who are working for us everywhere in 
this country, and many who are working for us all over 
the world. 

" Now, what shall be the future of the school ? 
There is nothing to regret ; and you have a property of 
sixty thousand dollars, and two schools with three hun- 
dred and eighty girls in them. What shall we do with 
these schools and this property ? The first thing I have 
to tell you in this connection is that Ramabai is dead. 
The person who went in your stead is dead and gone. 
What will you do with the property ? The first scholar 
of the school suggests that a new Association be 
formed. God gave me this morning a name for it, if 
you will adopt it. That is, the Faith, Hope, and Love 
Association for the Emancipation of the High-caste 
Child- widows of India ; for nothing but faith and hope 
and love will redeem India. Do not concentrate your 
interest in one person, for that person will die and be 
gone, as many have gone before; but this Association 



THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 127 

must not die. It must be perpetually alive; and how 
will it live but through faith, hope, and love ? Let this 
new Association be organized right here, to go on 
working in the same old way. 

" We want twenty thousand dollars a year. When 
I came here first, I only asked for five thousand; and 
you gave me six thousand a year. Now my hopes and 
expectations are enlarged, and my ambition for my girls 
and for the elevation of the women of India prompts 
me to ask for great things. I believe, if we had not 
a single cent in hand, God would shower from heaven 
the funds we want. Last year God sent thirty thous- 
and dollars. He is as rich to-day ; and He will send us 
twenty thousand dollars — not for one year, or two, or 
ten, but so long as India and its needs exist. 

" We are not to take thought for to-morrow. We are 
only to do His work faithfully. * Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these 
things shall be added unto you.' 

" Yet tell me that you are very busy, and your in- 
terests are divided; and some of you say that you are 
very old and cannot work any longer. You have many 
poor people to help, and many widows and deserted 
wives, I suppose; but our needs are greater. Are you 
too busy to pray for us? No, because you are mem- 
bers of that royal priesthood whose privilege and right 



128 PANDITA RAMABAI 

it is to pray for us. Why can you not work for us? 
Yes, you can work for us^ and you will. And what 
about old age? 

*' Just about the time I started from India I was get- 
ting very tired, and wishing to rush out from the school 
and give up the work. I thought I too was getting too 
old, and could not stand it. But the Father told me to 
go and read the Bible; and in Luke's Gospel I found 
the story of a prophetess who is called Anna — Mrs. 
Anna, the prophetess, let us call her — and the Bible says 
she worked for eighty-four years^ and did not give up 
her good work in the temple service all that time. And 
God said to me, * If you live to be that age, you must 
work till then.' And I bring that same message to 
you, my dear friends ; and it is a glorious thing for you 
to look for." 

In disbanding, the former officers of the Ramabai As- 
sociation transferred the property and all its interests 
to Ramabai personally. She remained in America a 
sufficient time to see the New Board legally constituted 
and the property duly vested in the hands of responsible 
trustees. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MATERIAL PROGRESS AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 

"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making 
many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all 
things." — 2 Cor. vi. lo. 

TESTS and trials came both to Ramabai and her 
helpers during the time of her absence in Amer- 
ica. When she started from Mukti, the foun- 
dations were rising for a large new building, erected 
in the form of a square, providing dormitories for these 
three hundred girls and women, with rooms at each 
corner for officers and matrons. There was some mon- 
ey in hand, but not sufficient to maintain the establish- 
ment and complete the building during the expected 
months of Ramabai's absence. The stone was quarried 
on the premises, and the whole work was under the care 
of a qualified Bengali Christian overseer. Miss Ab- 
rams undertook to be treasurer; and Ramabai left the 
work in faith that God would provide means as needed. 
Miss Abrams was instructed to pay all bills as money 
came in, but to stop the work if funds ran low, and on 
no account to go into debt. For a considerable time 
funds did run low, and on two occasions building was 

129 



I30 PANDITA RAMABAI 

stopped for a week or two ; but there was always food. 
Still, it was a time of trial to Miss Abrams and to 
Soonderbai ; and the latter experienced added difficulties 
on account of the recrudescence of the plague in Poona. 

This condition of affairs was reported to Ramabai; 
and reaching her at a time when she was quite worn out 
with the fatigue of travel, and the strain of re-arrange- 
ment of the American Association, it tried her far 
more than if she had been at home to face the difficulty 
herself. For two years without respite her mind and 
body had borne the continuous effort of caring for these 
needy ones, sustained only by her brave spirit and firm 
faith in God. There was no rest for her when she got 
to America. It was her earnest desire to meet the 
wishes of her friends for her to speak here, there, and 
everywhere ; the distances being often so great as to re- 
quire travelling by night, followed, at times, by two ad- 
dresses during the day. To this was added her intense 
anxiety about her poor children at home. She bore it 
bravely between herself and God. 

" But at last there came a day," says a friend in 
America, " when all this was too much for the over- 
taxed body and mind ; and she lay upon her bed, crying 
to God in her anguish, and feeling that she must go 
home to suffer and to die, if need be, with her dear ones 
there. During that day of pain and terrible fear she 
poured out her heart to one who loved her. The story 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 



131 



was told to two of her best and most generous friends ; 
and on her return to Boston, a few evenings afterward, 
the entire sum necessary to relieve, for a time, the needs 
of her children and her own anxiety, was placed in her 
hands. When she realized the meaning of it all, her 
weary, anxious face became illumined with joy and 
with grateful love, as she exclaimed : * Thank God and 
those dear friends! Oh, I shall sleep to-night as I 
have not slept for weeks thinking of my poor hungry 
children!'" 

Ramabai's longing for home deepened. The times 
for successful work in America grew more unfavor- 
able. The receipt of a telegram from London, request- 
ing her immediate presence, decided her. She sailed 
from New York early in July, with the hope that an 
English Association might be formed to work in har- 
mony with the American Association. In this she was 
disappointed. No plans had been formed, and none 
could be formed during the summer. She hastened her 
departure from England, after visiting the Keswick 
Convention. In August she was with her own again, 
and none too soon. For able, and faithful, and devoted 
as were those having charge of the schools, they were 
not Ramabai. On the farm hundreds of fruit-trees had 
died through the neglect of the gardener, and Ramabai 
found herself obliged to discharge him, and take up the 
management of the farm herself 



132 PANDITA RAMABAI 

In spite of delays the buildings were sufficiently near 
to completion for a dedication service to be held in Sep- 
tember; and again a large number of missionaries and 
Christian friends from Poona, Bombay, and elsewhere, 
gathered at Mukti, to unite with Ramabai in praising 
God for progress in material blessings, and for spiritual 
advancement in the pupils. Soonderbai and the whole 
of the Poona establishment were present. 

The picture of the building which we reproduce here 
was taken at this time. The inscription over the large 
gateway is " Praise the Lord," in Marathi, in pursuance 
of Ramabai's determination to call her walls " Salva- 
tion," and her gates " Praise." 

After Ramabai came out into the fulness of spiritual 
blessing, as related in Chapter VIL, her views as to the 
power of God expanded. She translated the Scriptures 
literally. She believed that as the Lord made the hu- 
man body, it was His province to heal it; that the 
Spirit would so "quicken" her "moral body" as to 
remove ailments and keep it in health. Taking Him at 
His word she commenced praying for the healing of an 
internal disorder for which she had for years been con- 
sulting physicians at home and abroad to no purpose. 
Soonderbai joined with her in prayer for half-an-hour 
daily, and in the course of two months she was able to 
tell of her own complete healing, and that of two of her 
pupils from serious maladies. She thus tested God 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 133 

and proved that the prayer of faith did heal the sick. 
Continuous miracles of this sort have been wrought 
since in connection with this work of faith and love. 

There is so much scepticism on this subject, even 
among Christians, that I do not feel called upon to re- 
late details here; but if Ramabai would write her own 
experiences on the line of Divine healing, I believe it 
would be a more remarkable story than any I have told 
in these pages. I must, however, relate one circum- 
stance here of the continuous overruling of God's power 
with regard to the pupils at the Sharada Sadan at the 
time of the plague in Poona. I referred in Chapter IX. 
to the arbitrary action of the magistrate in carrying off 
to the Plague Observation Camp eighteen girls suffer- 
ing from various complaints left by the famine. These 
were all returned to the Sharada Sadan in the course of 
a few days, except one who was reported to have 
plague. When Ramabai inquired for her, she was told 
she had died. A few weeks later a party of girls was 
being brought into Poona by rail, when a little one who 
was suffering with slight fever was taken at the rail- 
way inspection office and sent off to this Observation 
Camp. Ramabai insisted on accompanying the child, 
a mere baby, and spent some days there with her, until 
she was released. 

While there Ramabai began to make particular en- 
quiries about the girl who was reported dead. She never 



134 PANDITA RAMABAI 

had been able to believe that the girl had the plague ; and 
now discovered that she had not, and that she was not 
dead, but had been detained by one of the native of- 
ficials of this camp, and was living with him in sin. 
The poor girl's joy on seeing Ramabai proved that she 
had not been a willing partner in the transaction. She 
was again rescued, and sent to a kind missionary friend, 
but died after a few months. 

This experience proved to Ramabai what unsafe 
places these plague observation camps were for young 
girls, and yet to these places families suspected of hav- 
ing cases of plague were constantly being sent by the 
authorities. Should a case of plague occur at the 
Sharada Sadan, there would be no appeal against the 
removal of all; and fever cases would also be taken 
there singly if any were found. Ramabai and Soonder- 
bai made it a matter of earnest prayer that they might 
be protected from plague, and from any mistakes on the 
part of the plague inspection parties who visited the 
house several times a week. It was a generally un- 
healthy season, and cases of slight fever were common. 
Soonderbai has told me of the way in which they would 
all gather and pray when a case of fever occurred ; and 
of how, even when five or six had appeared unwell at 
once at night, the temperature of each would be normal 
when the inspection party came round the next day. 
Thus God protected them, and no further cases of re- 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 135 

moval occurred. But it will explain the strain upon 
those in charge of the work at Poona during Ramabai's 
absence. Writing of Mukti after her return from 
America, Ramabai said: 

" There are neither doctors nor medicines found in 
this village; those girls who wish to resort to medical 
help in sickness are in no way hindered from it. They 
are taken to Poona, and proper medical treatment is 
given them. Yet it must be said to the glory of God 
that the large majority of girls seek God's help in their 
sickness. The Lord has wonderfully protected us from 
the dreadful plague and other sickness. The sun, so 
terribly hot, has not hurt us, nor the cold and rains. 
The girls realize that divine help is better than human 
means. So when any one among them is sick, they get 
around her and begin to pray, and God answers their 
prayer beyond their hope and expectation." 

From the time of the 1897 famine there had been 
scarcity in the country district around Khedgaon, 
though not actual famine. Ramabai's building oper- 
ations, therefore, were a great boon to the workpeople 
who came from the neighbouring villages. It has also 
been a golden opportunity for giving them the Gospel. 
When the building work had to be stopped for want of 
funds — and this happened after Ramabai^s return, as 
well as while she was absent in America — the workmen 
were told that work would be started again when God 



136 PANDITA RAMABAI 

sent the means. Not an opportunity was missed to 
thank and glorify God for His bounteous help, and to 
show how absolutely dependent we are • upon Him. 
Thus the heathen workmen employed on the buildings 
came to know that there is a living God who hears and 
answers prayer, who does not desert His people, and 
who is so different from the lifeless gods and devils 
whom they serve. The number of workmen employed 
on the buildings has averaged from eighty to one hun- 
dred and twenty. Their usual time of labour is nine 
hours every day ; but they were allowed to work only for 
eight hours, and in the last hour are called together to 
hear the Gospel preached by Miss Abrams and other 
missionaries. A number attended Sunday School in 
connection with the Mukti Church, and the Gospel is 
finding its way into some of their hearts. 

Ramabai's desire that the rescued girls should be 
trained to work in these villages was granted almost 
sooner than she expected. At Christmas, 1898, Miss 
Abrams gave several addresses on the spiritual needs 
of India, in the endeavour to incite a missionary spirit 
in the minds of these young disciples, themselves so 
recently won from heathendom. She then told them 
of the Student Volunteer Movement in the American 
and English colleges, and of the numbers of students 
who had pledged their lives to mission work, as God 
should open the way. When Miss Abrams suggested 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 137 

the formation of such a mission band at Mukti, thirty- 
five volunteered to be ready for training for evangelistic 
work. They agreed to meet daily at noon for an hour's 
extra Bible teaching. In a few months from that time 
several were regularly employed with the other Bible- 
women in visiting the villages. 

When the Collector of the district (the British magis- 
trate) visited Khedgaon, he was astonished to find how 
strong was Ramabai's influence for good among the 
villagers. Beside the amount of work provided for 
them in needy times, Ramabai proved their benefactor 
in another sense. The ground on the opposite side of 
the road to the Mukti buildings was owned by a liquor- 
dealer. This ground came close to the buildings. 
There were rumors that some one intended to open a 
liquor-shop close by her property. Ramabai went to 
the Collector of the district and secured a promise from 
him that no license to sell liquor in Khedgaon should be 
granted to any one. But to make herself secure from 
any possible annoyance of the kind she purchased the 
liquor-dealer's farm containing seventeen acres. She 
then invited the people in the surrounding country to 
establish a weekly bazaar on this roadside. They were 
thankful for the opportunity to do so, as the nearest 
bazaar was eight miles away. This new bazaar is a 
boon to the people; Ramabai and her employees buy a 
good deal of the produce brought for sale, and it tends 



138 PANDITA RAMABAI 

to cheapen some kinds of goods. It also brings the 
people within sound of the Gospel, which is proclaimed, 
both by voice and the printed page, every bazaar day. 

In January, 1899, my husband and I paid a farewell 
visit to Khedgaon before leaving India. We found 
the work going on most satisfactorily, and a number of 
industries in full swing. 

These industries were chiefly of an agricultural na- 
ture, preparing food-stuffs for consumption at Mukti 
and the Sharada Sadan, and thus reducing materially 
the expenditure of both establishments. 

The dairy department provided all the milk, butter, 
ghee, and dhye, for both institutions. A gift of fifty 
pounds sent to Ramabai by a lady in England, instead 
of a legacy, had then recently enabled her to enlarge 
this department of the work by the purchase of more 
cows ; and while in America the previous year a wealthy 
American friend had given her some American chums 
and other improved dairy appliances, including some 
very nicely contrived cans in which milk was daily sent 
by rail to Poona. We went to see the cows, a number of 
which had young calves. Ramabai was then anticipating 
the increase of this department into a regular business of 
supplying dairy produce to customers in Poona; but 
the subsequent famine made it very difficult to main- 
tain the cattle, and all the milk and ghee obtainable 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 139 

were needed to sustain and succour the famine vic- 
tims. 

The deaf and dumb woman was in charge of the 
churning department, and eagerly displayed to us the 
superiority of the new churns over the previously em- 
ployed native methods. This old method consisted of 
a pole about the size of a broom-handle, with short 
cross- way bars fixed on the lower end, not unlike a 
" dolly " used in some parts of England for washing 
clothes. The pole is swiftly whirled in the pot of milk 
till the cream comes. Both kinds of churn are shown 
in our illustration. 

" Ghee " is clarified butter ; and " dhye '* is a kind 
of curd-cheese much used. Both are important ele- 
ments in the daily food of non-meat-eaters in India. 
When sufficient butter and ghee cannot be obtained, 
a good substitute is found in a sort of vegetable oil. 
This is made from a grain called Kardi (or " Tilly " 
in the Central Provinces). The grain for making this 
oil was grown on the farm at Mukti. Among the 
widows rescued from the 1897 famine was one who un- 
derstood the process of oil-making. Ramabai, prompt 
to seize opportunities, purchased a second-hand oil 
mill, and placed her in charge. The mill interested us 
very much; it was a clumsy looking erection, a heavy 
upright beam, some cords and pulleys, with another 



I40 PANDITA RAMABAI 

beam placed crosswise; this was attached to the yoke 
of a small bullock who patiently plodded round and 
round in a circle with his eyes blinded. A large hundie 
(cooking pot) stood at the mouth of the mill, and re- 
ceived the oil as it flowed. This had to undergo some 
process of boiling or purifying before it was ready for 
use. Several girls were employed, beside the woman 
in charge, sifting and sorting the grain and prepar- 
ing it for the mill. Ramabai said this manufacture 
effected a great saving in expense. 

While we were there, the woman lifted up a full pot 
of oil and put it aside. We had been admiringly watch- 
ing the patient little bullock, and just then I ventured 
to pat its back. Then was a transformation scene. The 
unaccustomed caress so scared the apparently gentle 
little creature, that he began kicking and plunging in 
every direction. We had to beat a hasty retreat, and 
send a workman to assist the woman in disentangling 
the animal from the cords of the machinery into which 
it had pranced. Happily the pot of oil had just been 
placed outside of his range, and no damage of convSe- 
quence was done. 

A field of red peppers ready for harvest at this time 
was employing a troop of women and girls in gather- 
ing, sorting, and drying the pods. Another detach- 
ment was at work harvesting the jowari crop — a grain 
used instead of wheat in making bread. 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 141 

A weaving department with about twelve looms was 
under the care of a Christian man, who was employed 
to teach, to a selected number of young women, the 
art and mystery of weaving sarees (the length of ma- 
terial which gracefully twisted about the person forms 
the dress of the Marathi women.) The preparation and 
spinning of cotton yarn from the raw material is an 
adjunct of this industry, and employs as many in pro- 
portion as the looms. 

The manufacture of these hand-loom dress-stuffs is 
an industry which has not been affected to any great 
extent by the modern Manchester competition. True, 
the mills do put out a printed cotton saree, but in wear 
and durability it is not to be compared to the hand- 
loom production, and for women's garments the hand- 
loom still holds its own. It is well that it is so; and I 

for one trust the day is far distant when this whole- 
some simple family industry will be substituted in In- 
dia by the herding together of crowds of persons in 
the unhealthy moral atmosphere of mill life. Bombay 
has already its forest of mill chimneys. The work- 
ers are chiefly men from country districts, and the 
women are the wives of working men, who are in all 
sorts of employment in the city. Frequently a man will 
have two wives, one of whom works at the mill from 
seven in the morning till six at night ; the other remain- 
ing at home to provide for the family. Tragedies often 



142 PANDITA RAMABAI 

come up in the police-court which reveal the sort of 
life led by these unfortunate women. Contrast this 
with a model settlement of Christian weavers which 
we saw at Itarsi, in the Central Provinces, in con- 
nection with the Friends' Mission. These were heredi- 
tary weavers who had become Christian. Their com- 
fortable home-life, wives and daughters plying the 
spinning wheel, dyeing and winding the yarn, the boys 
learning to take their father's seat at the loom when 
school days should be over, and the babies rolling in the 
sunshine, gave an almost ideal picture of what indus- 
trial life should be. 

Those who would successfully solve the problem of 
the industrial employment of Indian Christians will be 
wise to take into consideration the system of family in- 
dustries indigenous to the country. 

Rev. Albert Norton, a missionary of many years' 
experience, had arrived with his wife from Amer- 
ica, and was helping in the outside mission work. 
Fifteen villages in the neighbourhood were then ac- 
cessible to Gospel work. Mr. and Mrs. Norton had 
organized Sunday Schools in some of these. Two 
Bible-women were going out daily from Mukti to these 
villages. Miss Abrams accompanying them as often as 
her other duties permitted. 

I had the privilege of going with them on one after- 
noon to a village two miles away. I was impressed 



MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 143 

with the miserably poverty-stricken aspect of the place. 
It had the appearance of having been at some time 
wrecked, and then patched up with any and every kind 
of material that could be got : mud and straw by choice. 
Some of the stone walls were high and massive, and the 
doorways pretentious. Some of the " cosiest homes," 
if such words could be used in such a connection, were 
mud walls with thatched roofs. These at least were in 
keeping. I was told that this village was in fair ave- 
rage condition. 

Seven times during the afternoon we sat on door- 
steps or outside of houses, at the invitation of the in- 
mates, while a little crowd gathered around to hear the 
Gospel hymns and messages from Miss Abrams and 
the Bible-women. All castes were visited, high and 
low. 

As we drove home through the moonlight. Miss Ab- 
rams told me of some of the responses made by the peo- 
ple, which I had been unable to understand, and also of 
some of her experiences in the work. When she first 
visited some of the villages in this district, she found 
they had never seen a white woman before ; some were 
afraid, and afterwards told her they took her for a sol- 
dier in disguise. At one house where the neighbour- 
women had gathered to hear, one excused herself from 
remaining by saying she had grain to sift at home ; the 
hostess spoke up and said : " Don't go, you can clean 



144 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



grain any day ; but it is not every day you can see such 
an image as this/* 

We left Mukti more than ever impressed with the 
wide possibilities and healthy developments of the work 
in the hands of Ramabai and her helpers. 

Two Christian women from America were then on 
a visit to Mukti. These friends helped Ramabai to 
give shape to a thought that had long been with her, 
for the erection of a building specially for the care of 
girls who had been sinned against by wicked men ; many 
of these were sick, and it was undesirable that such 
should be mixed with the others. The younger lady 
took charge of a few of this class already with Ramabai. 
She remained for nearly twelve months. She nursed 
several of these poor girls back to good health, and then 
left to establish a rescue home of her own in another 
part of India. The other stayed and saw the founda- 
tions in for a new building on the piece of ground pur- 
chased from the liquor-dealer. She then returned to 
America, and worked for some months both there and 
in England, and raised half the amount needed for this 
new building. 

Rev. Albert Norton and his wife remained with 
Ramabai till February, 1900, when they removed to 
Dhond, ten miles distant, being led to undertake famine 
relief work especially on the line of caring for destitute 
boys. 



CHAPTER XII. 

RESCUE WORK DURING THE FAMINE OF I9OO 

" The servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the 
heart." — Eph. vi. 7. 

WHEN Ramabai was making her garden at the 
Sharada Sadan in years gone by, she plan- 
ned to have a fernery around a fountain. 
Ferns were brought from the Ghauts at Lanouli, or 
Khandalla, where in the rainy season they adorn in 
profusion the sides of the rocky hills, clothing their na- 
tive barrenness with a garment of tender and lovely 
green. Baskets of these ferns can always be purchased 
for a few annas at the railway stations on the Ghauts, 
and many people take them home and transplant them, 
but they rarely survive the operation — they are rock- 
grown, and will not root in ordinary garden soil. This 
was also Ramabai's experience. But she meant to have 
a fernery, and nothing daunted by failure, she hired two 
bullock carts, and went off one day to a river-side some 
twenty miles distant, where she knew she would find 
what she wanted. She brought back quantities of 

145 



146 PANDITA RAMABAI 

beautiful maiden-hair, roots, soil, and all, and planted 
her fernery, which flourishes to this day. 

It is this characteristic of determination and perse- 
verance that has been a large factor in the human side 
of her work. Ramabai ascribes all the glory to God, 
and looks upon herself as solely an instrument in His 
hands. But she is a polished instrument, and will have 
the reward of those who have placed all their talents out 
at highest interest in God* service. Her versatility is 
a constant source of wonder to her friends. In a recent 
Report of the Ramabai Association, Mrs. Andrews 
wrote : 

" Do you ask if she is equal to doing so many things, 
and doing them well — of buying and building, of plan- 
ning and executing, of farming and teaching? Dr. 
Hale's words, uttered years ago, are as true now as then, 
and will answer the question : * This little woman, who 
has had this remarkable success with audiences; who 
has had the wit to think out this combination of circles 
which work together so well, goes back to India. The 
chances were ninety-nine out of a hundred that she 
would have wasted the whole of her money. There are 
very excellent people, who can do something of what 
she has done, who have not the slightest executive ca- 
pacity; and it ought to be said that. most people who 
talk well, as she does, are singularly destitute of the 
power of working well. . . . But here this wonderful 



RESCUE WORK 147 

little woman who has roused the whole country, and has 
raised this sum of money, and has organized all this 
thing, goes out there and proves to be a first-rate edu- 
cator. And she proves to be a first-rate buyer, and a 
first-rate person to get on with contractors/ " 

We may add to this that she is a capable farmer, and 
a poet of no mean order. In the Kindergarten, which 
is a part of her educational work, training the older 
girls to teach the little ones, many of the action songs 
used in English schools have been aptly translated into 
Marathi by Ramabai. She has also enriched the song 
of the Marathi Christian Church with a number of 
beautiful hymns to English as well as Indian tunes. 

And the spring of all her inspiration is love to God 
and man, kindled by that love of Christ which con- 
strains to spend and be spent, and to suffer for others. 
Ramabai tells how in one part of her father's house, 
when she was but nine years old, there lived a poor 
family. The family consisted of a man of thirty years 
of age, his girl-wife of sixteen, and his old mother. 
The mother-in-law was all the worst that is implied by 
that name in India — a heartless old hag, always beat- 
ing, abusing, and cruelly treating her daughter-in-law. 
One day when the girl was spinning, a monkey stole her 
cotton. For this carelessness the girl was abused by 
the mother-in-law, who nagged the husband on to beat 
her. Ramabai adds : " I was an eye-witness to all 



148 PANDITA RAMABAI 

this. Her piercing cries went right to my heart ; and I 
seem to hear them now after nearly thirty years. My 
childish heart was filled with indignation. I was 
powerless to help. But I have never forgotten that 
poor girl's cries for help ; and I suppose it was the first 
call I received to enter upon the sacred duty of helping 
my sisters according to the little strength I had. But 
I never realized the extent of grief and suffering and 
the need of my sisters just as long as I remained in 
darkness, and had no love of God in me." 

The funds raised in England in the autumn of 1899 
for the new rescue building were doubly welcome. An- 
other famine had broken out in India, and this time the 
country around Khedgaon was more deeply affected. 
This money came in time of need to employ many starv- 
ing people in the erection of the rescue home. And 
Ramabai found herself obliged to make the needs of 
her starving neighbours known, and to help many with 
work and the more helpless with alms. This new 
famine increased in severity, and added trouble was 
caused by the scarcity of water. Still Ramabai's heart 
went out to the poor wandering and starving high-caste 
widows. 

In Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces 
organized relief work met to some extent the needs of 
the people ; but in Gujerat, in which there had been no 
famine for one hundred years, and in Rajputana, a ter- 



RESCUE WORK 149 

rible state of things existed ; and Ramabai felt she must 
go and gather some of the poor girls from these places. 
She knew that the emissaries of evil were busy already, 
and felt she must be up and doing. She waited on God 
to know His mind about it. She writes : " The treas- 
ury was quite empty; and when the quarterly balance 
sheet was prepared in the middle of October, there was 
no balance left at all. Reports of the widespread 
famine and the wicked traffic in girls reached me from 
many sides. Still there was nothing to be done except 
to wait and pray. The Lord did not try my faith very 
long. The very next day a cheque for Rs.272-2-0 was 
sent for Mukti, and another daily need was supplied in 
a wonderful manner. It was then made clear to me 
that I must step out in faith, and receive as many girls 
as the Lord would have me reach. So the work was 
begun at once. Workers were stationed at different 
places to search for young girls. There was no money 
for buying material to build new sheds, so some old 
material was gathered, and a shed was prepared to shel- 
ter the newcomers." 

Ramabai was happy in having some good workers to 
send on this errand. They have done the greater part 
of the work, though Ramabai paid, at least, three visits 
herself to the most terribly afflicted districts. She says 
of these women that they have shared all the hardships 
in the famine relief work. " Gangabai, who has been in 



i^o PANDIT A RAMABAI 

this work from the beginning, has gone through many 
hardships. She has spared neither strength nor time 
to do all she can for the famine girls. She is a splendid 
worker, called of God to gather many girls, and seems 
to have a special gift in this line of work. Kashibai 
and Bhimabai are both converts from Hinduism, 
Kashibai gave up her comfortable home, her husband, 
and all, for the sake of following the Master when He 
called her. She is a very simple woman, very timid 
and unacquainted with the wisdom of the world. 
Bhimabai was a Hindu Fakir, had travelled a great 
deal, visited many sacred shrines, bathed in the sacred 
rivers and tanks to have her sins washed away ; but all 
to no purpose. At last the Lord took compassion on 
her and revealed Himself to her as the Saviour of her 
soul ; and now she is a happy Christian, preaching the 
Gospel to hundreds of village women. 

" These three simple and almost illiterate women, 
protected by the strong and mighty hand of God, have 
travelled alone for hundreds of miles in jungles, vil- 
lages, cities, on highways and byways, in search of 
starving and dying young girls. They have walked for 
miles in the burning sun; gone without food and rest; 
worked incessantly for the salvation of the dying hun- 
dreds. Their work will be recorded in the Book of the 
Lamb ; for no one who has not borne the hardships of 
work among famine-stricken people, and been with 



RESCUE WORK 151 

them for days and nights, can appreciate their labour 
and know what they have to endure. I see the Gospel 
declaration — i Corinth, i. 26-29 ^ — verified when I see 
these and other simple Christian women used of the 
Lord for His service. They are doing a work from 
which many a mighty man would shrink. 

" It is but a small thing to fight a great battle and win 
a victory with many titles, compared with the heroism 
of such women. They must be truly blind who cannot 
see the strength and high courage which the Spirit of 
Christ gives to the most timid and despised women of 
this country. I have more than one hundred noble 
young women in my schools alone who are nobly sacri- 
ficing their comfort, even their lives, in the service of 
their sisters. Since their conversion to Christ they are 
so changed that one who was acquainted with them be- 
fore they were Christians could hardly recognise them 
now. God be praised for His wondrous love, which 
can turn the selfish, unruly, and devilish heart, and re- 
flect into it the beautiful image of His meek and loving 

^" For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many 
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, 
are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the 
world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 
and base things of the world, and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to 
nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his 
presence." 



152 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



Son! It rejoices my heart to see some of the girls 
saved from the last famine going out into the famine 
districts with my workers to save the lives of their 
perishing sisters in the present famine [1900]. 

" It is hard work to gather and save girls and young 
women. Their minds have been filled with such a dread 
toward Christian people, that they cannot appreciate the 
kindness shown them. For instance, many of the un- 
converted girls in my homes have a great fear in their 
mind. They think that some day after they are well 
fattened they will be hung head downward, and a great 
fire will be built underneath, and oil will be extracted 
from them to be sold at a fabulously large price for 
medical purposes. Others think they will be put into 
oil mills, and their bones ground. It is only lately that 
our girls gathered from the last famine have begun to 
lose these dreadful thoughts ; but the minds of the new 
one are filled with more dreadful ideas than these. 
They cannot understand that any one would be kind to 
them without some selfish purpose. 

" Bad men have succeeded in gathering large num- 
bers of girls by enticing them away, and selling them to 
a bad life. It is too shocking to the refined feeling of 
refined people; but facts are facts, and Christian 
mothers ought to know them, that they may be promp- 
ted to pray and to work hard for the salvation of young 
girls — ^perhaps of the same age as their own sweet 



RESCUE WORK 153 

daughters. Let the thought and love of our daughters 
move our mother-hearts to come forward and save as 
many of the perishing young girls as we can. I have 
found out to my great horror and sorrow that over 
twelve per cent, of the girls rescued by my workers have 
been ruined for life, and had to be separated from the 
other girls and placed in the Rescue Home. The bodies 
of some of these poor girls are so frightfully diseased 
that there is no hope for their recovery. 
" The Word of God says * : 

' Open thy mouth for the dumb 
In the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.' 

And woe will be to me if I do not obey the command, 
even at the cost of losing the favour of the high and 
mighty of this world. Many a careless official has al- 
lowed children to be taken away by people who will turn 
the boys and girls into slaves and concubines. The 
poor children who have been sheltered in poorhouses 
and eaten food from the hands of people of other caste, 
will not be taken back into their caste, but will be in 
lifelong slavery if they are 'adopted' by Hindus or 
Mohammedans. The Contagious Diseases Act, which 
has again come into force under the name of 
Cantonments Act is a great power on the side 
of the devil, and enables wicked people to carry 

*pRov. xxxi. 8. 



154 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



on their evil traffic in girls for the * benefit ' of the 
British soldiers. Missionaries and others in their res- 
cue work have found it much more difficult to get girls 
than to gather boys from famine districts. Men and 
women who are engaged in this traffic in flesh and blood 
were very busy for months gathering girls before any 
of the relief works and poorhouses were started. 
Whenever they saw any of the Christian people coming 
to the rescue of the girls, they started such alarms and 
told such dreadful stories about Christians, that in many 
cases the girls refused to place themselves in charge of 
Christians* schools, and have gone to their destruction." 

The foregoing vivid description from Ramabai's own 
pen is a portion of a Report issued by her in May, 
1900. A few more extracts from the same, concern- 
ing the present condition and progress of the Mukti 
school, will bring my narrative near to its close. 

" From a small beginning of temporary character, the 
Mukti s.chool has grown into a permanent and large 
institution. Three hundred girls rescued from starva- 
tion in 1897 have received regular secular and Chris- 
tian instruction. They are the children of many 
prayers ; much love and labour have been bestowed on 
them; and I am able to say, with great joy, that the 
workers have not laboured in vain. The money which 
so many friends have sent for them has not been spent 
in vain. The Lord is very good to let us see the fruit 



RESCUE WORK 



155 



of our labour; and He is giving us abundant joy as we 
see the girls growing in grace and proving themselves 
worthy of the love and labour bestowed on them. 

" Five hundred and eighty in the Mukti Sadan, and 
sixty girls in the Krapa Sadan,* are being trained to 
lead a useful Christian life. The number of the in- 
mates of these homes is doubled, and will increase as 
days pass by. God is greatly blessing the work, and 
the prayers of our friends in all parts of the world 
are answered daily. Including the hundred girls of 
the Sharada Sadan, I have altogether nearly seven 
hundred and fifty girls under training. It will be easily 
imagined that they need a large number of teachers 
and helpers to train them. I have only sixteen paid 
teachers from outside in these homes. There are 
eighty-five other persons to help me in the three in- 
stitutions. Thirty-three teachers, ten matrons, and 
forty-two workers in different branches of industry, 
are daily labouring for the good of their sisters and 
their own improvement. Although they are dependent 
on these schools for their daily bread, they may be said 
to earn their own living, as most of them receive no 
pay, or have but nominal pay. The Sharada Sadan 
has trained seventy teachers and workers in the past 
eleven years; and the Mukti school has trained nearly 

'Kripa Sadan — Home of Grace — is the name of the Rescue 
Home started last year. 



156 PANDITA RAMABAI 

eighty girls to earn their own living in the past three 
years. Eighty-five of the old and new girls have found 
work in their own mother institutions; and sixty-five 
of the old girls are either married or earning their liv- 
ing as teachers and workers in different places. 

" A question has often been asked, namely : What 
is going to become of all these girls? It is not diffi- 
cult to answer it. India is a large country, and a vast 
amount of ignorance prevails everywhere. Men and 
women of education and character are needed, to en- 
lighten this and the coming generation. I have had a 
hundred requests from missionaries and superintendents 
of schools to give them trained teachers, Bible-women, 
or matrons. I have had quite as many, perhaps more, 
requests from young men to give them educated wives. 
It will not be difficult to find good places and comforta- 
ble homes for all these young girls when the proper 
time comes. My heart is burdened with the thought 
that there are more than one hundred and forty-five 
millions of women in this country who need to have 
the light of the knowledge of God's love given them! 
All the work that is being done by missionaries and their 
assistants in this vast land is but a drop in the ocean. 
It will be very small help to add our particle to that 
drop. But every particle added will increase the drop; 
so it will be multiplied, and permeate the ocean un^il 
it becomes a stream of the living water that flows 



RESCUE WORK 157 

from under the throne of God, to give life and joy 
to this nation. My aim is to train all these girls to do 
some work or other. Over two hundred of the pres- 
ent number have much intelligence, and promise to 
be good school teachers after they receive a few years' 
training. Thirty of the bigger girls have joined a 
training class for nurses. Some of them have mastered 
the trade of oil-making. Others have learnt to do laun- 
dry work, and some have learnt dairy work. More 
than sixty have learnt to cook very nicely. Fifty or 
more have had some training in field work; but want 
of rain has stopped that branch of our industry, which 
will, I hope, be started again after the rain falls. Forty 
girls have learnt to weave nicely; and more than fifty 
have learnt to sew well, and make their own garments. 
The rest, small and large, are learning to do some work 
with ' the three Rs.' 

" One of the smaller girls rescued from starvation in 
the last famine is taking charge of a few of our blind 
girls. Miss Abrams very kindly taught her to read 
the blind characters. The girl herself is studying 
hard while engaged in teaching the blind girls to 
read the Scriptures. Besides reading the Scriptures 
she teaches them tables, mental arithmetic, and 
geography, in her spare hours. She sees to their 
bathing, taking meals at proper times, and can be seen 
going about her work with her family of the blind and 



158 PANDITA RAMABAI 

feeble-minded girls. Her heart goes out to the weak 
and friendless ; and, as soon as she sees some one who 
is not loved by other girls, she befriends her and takes 
charge of her at once. She is a truly converted Chris- 
tian girl, trying to follow in the steps of her Divine 
Saviour. This and other instances of converted girls 
endeavouring to do what they can to alleviate the suffer- 
ings of their sisters while yet in school and busy with 
their work, are a great encouragement to us workers, 
who thank God for being so good as to let us see that 
our labours are not lost. 

" Some girls who are not intellectually bright have 
a mother's heart, which is full of love for children. 
They are appointed as matrons, and have small groups 
of children under their charge, and love and care for 
them. These very girls, who are so gentle and loving 
now, were very wild, greedy, and selfish, before their 
conversion to Christ. One would hardly have believed 
that they could ever be so changed and become what 
they are now. But the Scripture says nothing is im- 
possible with God. His love has won their hearts, and 
He has made them new creatures in Christ. It must 
not, however, be understood that our school- and mis- 
sion, and the workers connected with them, are models 
of perfection. We are all very defective, make many 
mistakes, and our flesh many a time gets the better of 
us. You will find many faults in us, if you look out for 



RESCUE WORK 



159 



them. The Lord knows that we are nothing but dust. 
But He in His supreme love does not give us up for 
lost, but chastens and brings us back into the right 
way, and lets us know why He chastised us. We thank 
Him with all our hearts for His unspeakable love and 
mercy. 

" Most of my helpers have joined the Bible Train- 
ing Class taught by Miss Abrams. The daily study 
of the Word of God has made them willing workers. 
' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.' 
We have found that nothing helps so much to make 
matters straight as the study of God's Word. Out of 
this Bible Training Class I hope there will rise a train- 
ed band of Bible-women, who will take the Gospel to 
their sisters in their own homes. Some girls have al- 
ready begun to go about in the villages around here. 
They are working as Zenana Bible-women and Sun- 
day School teachers in their spare time. 

*' Khedgaon is by no means a romantic place. The 
girls have to walk a long distance in the burning sun, 
bare-footed and without umbrellas, to go to bathe by 
the wells. They have to rise as early as four in the 
morning in order to get their day's work done. . . . 
School is always closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and 
other festival days. In long holidays, as in May and 
December, they have to do some little work in order 
to keep their minds busy. The girls who cook in the 



i6o PANDIT A RAMABAI 

morning have to rise as early as two o'clock. Two 
classes, having twenty-five or thirty girls in each, have 
to cook and serve by turns. Those who cook in the 
morning have their rest in the afternoon. Their time 
of work is changed after a few weeks. When one 
class has mastered the work assigned to it, another 
takes up the work, and the former one begins to learn 
something else. In this way all the girls are trained 
to do almost every kind of work done here. All get 
from seven to eight hours' sleep. They are neither 
over-fed nor get too delicate food; but none of them 
are under-fed. They get three good meals a day, as a 
rule. The weak and sick ones, as well as the very 
little children, have milk and other nourishing food. 
We have a regularly trained hospital nurse — a good 
Christian woman — to look after the sanitary condition 
of the place. She has a large band of girls working 
under her. No time, labour, or money, has been spar- 
ed to save life and make the girls comfortable. But 
weakness produced by prolonged starvation, and the 
extreme heat caused by want of rain, have been diffi- 
cult to cope with. Yet I cannot but thank God out of 
the fulness of my heart for so wonderfully protecting 
so many hundreds of lives from plague and famine. 
Although life at Khedgaon is hard, the girls look fat 
and healthy, and are full of spirits. I find that hard 
work makes better women of the girls. The easy and 



RESCUE WORK i6i 

comfortable city life is, of course, preferred by the 
flesh; but life in places like Khedgaon, with fewer 
comforts and harder work, is more conducive to bodily 
and spiritual health." 

A member of the Poona and Indian Village Mission, 
who visited Ramabai about this time, writes : " As we 
walked through the extensive grounds of Mukti Home, 
I was deeply interested to learn how the Lord has led 
this child of His to double the capacity of Mukti in 
a few short months. * When I determined to rescue 
hundreds in Gujerat last August, I had not a pice 
in hand; but after the determination had been made, 
the Lord sent Rs.242, she said : * this money was an 
earnest of thousands sent during the months to fol- 
low.' 

" We paused in our walk before a substantially built 
stone wall, eighteen inches thick and four hundred 
feet long, partially roofed over by tiles ; running parallel 
at a distance of eight or ten feet another stone wall 
will be built a few feet high, and thus, partitioned at 
intervals of fifty feet, eight dormitories will be ready 
when the monsoons break. These walls were entirely 
built of the stones taken from the ground in the excava- 
tion of four wells. A little further on, I observed a 
temporary building without walls, hedged about with 
prickly branches, making an exit impossible. ' This 
ward,' said Ramabai, * is for children having infectious 



i62 PANDITA RAMABAI 

diseases/ In other buildings were children in various 
stages of weakness. There were little ones in cots, so 
emaciated that one wondered how the spark of life 
had been preserved; there were weakly ones able to 
totter about — children who had grown prematurely old 
through suffering, but who, with careful attention and 
nourishing food, such as arrowroot, condensed foods, 
and milk, would be able to study and to work in six 
months' time. How could one help but praise God 
for bestowing such kindness and care upon these waifs ? 
It was a pleasure to learn that an Indian Christian 
trained nurse was teaching some of the older orphan 
girls to serve in that capacity. Out of eighty teachers 
and helpers in Mukti Home, sixty-four are old or- 
phan scholars, most of whom were rescued in 1897. 
'Are they truly converted women?' I asked. I shall 
not soon forget the look on Ramabai's face and her 
words: *Yes; they are truly converted; it would be 
impossible for them patiently to care for such repulsive 
and loathsome cases if the grace of God was not in their 
hearts.' There was much to praise God for, in all that 
one saw and heard that memorable evening. Here in 
Mukti Home were scores who had been truly converted 
to God ; and in a few months' time there will be proba- 
bly a thousand^ in the shelter of a real Christian Home ; 

^On August 3rd, 1900, Ramabai reports having received one 
thousand five hundred and fifty, and they were still coming. 



RESCUE WORK jg, 

trained in an eminently sensible way to regard work as 
honourable, living simply as natives live, and fitted for 
lives of usefulness. 

" Pandita Ramabai is a spiritually-minded Christian, 
one whose testimony, by life and lip, has no uncertain 
sound— a woman who believes the Bible to be the in- 
spired Word of God, and whose teaching is untouched 
by the fatal poison of higher criticism ; one who be- 
lieves unreservedly in the efficacy of the atoning blood 
of Christ for the guilt of sin, and who reckons upon 
the power of the Holy Ghost for service; a woman 
equipped by God to lead and to organize, and under 
God's grace to educate and train India's sons and daugh- 
ters for lives of service along Holy Ghost lines." 

Ramabai's reference to the necessity of the girls hav- 
ing been really converted before they could care pa- 
tiently for the newly-arrived victims of famine, is ac- 
centuated by a description of some of these cases, writ- 
ten by a missionary who has cared for many of them, 
and who says : " Some have had bowel troubles, piles,' 
etc. These need special attention as to diet. Others 
have great boils and sores to be washed, cleansed out, 
bandaged, and treated every day. Others have bad 
sore eyes. Some have a kind of whooping cough with 
vomiting of blood. 

" But the most dreaded of all, and what is so pain- 
ful, is the famine sore mouth. When once it has a 



i64 PANDITA RAMABAI 

headway in the mouth, nothing but prayer can stop 
its progress. It eats great lumps of flesh out of jaws, 
roof of the mouth, and eats the gums away from the 
teeth, and teeth drop out. We have had several of these 
cases, and the odour from them is almost unbearable. 
While trying to wash their mouths, which was done 
every two hours, the effort would almost take away 
our breath. Frequently the poor sufferers are released 
by death caused from the awful disease eating into the 
windpipe. When that is the case no earthly help can 
avail. God has wonderfully delivered from pain and 
death; but some were in such a frightful condition we 
could not but be glad when death released them. 

" Some have the famine sore head. This is not so 
obstinate, but may linger for months and even years 
without entirely healing. The head is sometimes, when 
we first get them, one mass of blood, pus, vermin, and 
scab. It has to be scraped and cleansed, then watched 
closely till healed. All have fevers and more or less 
pulmonary troubles from exposure to the cold night- 
air. Some you can scarcely locate their trouble. They 
seem to be in a decline; and though they eat heartily 
they waste away." 

Another missionary who visited Mukti in May, 1900, 
says : " This place has improved much since my last 
visit here a yeai^ and a half ago. Many buildings have 



RESCUE WORK 165 

gone up and more are being built, the plans all drawn 
up by Ramabai. Palm and other trees have been plant- 
ed; flowers and shrubs, also an artificial pond with 
water lilies and ferneries, make the place very beautiful 
and attractive. Things are kept scrupulously clean. One 
of the workers told me Ramabai has a real mother's 
heart; and when she has to punish one (which is often 
necessary), she is miserable until the girl is conquered 
and comes and asks her forgiveness; then she kisses 
her with weeping, and they go away and pray together." 

[Ramabai is unique in her methods of punishing as 
well as in other things. One visitor relates how she 
found a shamefaced little girl tied up among the calves. 
On questioning her as to why she was there, she con- 
fessed to having been convicted of pilfering. Her con- 
trition was evidently genuine, and the visitor thought 
the same punishment would not be twice needed.] 

" The pupils are separated into companies : girls of 
one size and age being put in one room, and the next 
size in another, with several older girls to look after 
them. In this way they are marched out to the dining- 
room, the little girls of five or six years coming first, 
two by two, and so increasing in size until the full- 
grown girls close up the ranks. In like manner they 
are marched out to the well daily, which is some dis- 
tance from the house, for their baths. Each one car- 



1 66 PANDIT A RAMABAI 

ries her clean sari on her head which is put on there 
after the bath, and the dirty one washed and carried 
home to dry. 

" It was quite an interesting sight to see the long, 
straight line of girls marching down the road, two by 
two, the other morning. I fell into line and marched 
with them to the well. How they did enjoy plung- 
ing into the deep reservoir of water; and what scream- 
ing and laughjng and talking as they splashed around 
in the water, throwing it on each other ! After bathing, 
all fell to washing their clothes; even the little ones 
washing away till helped out by their older sisters. 
The water is drawn from the well by six strong bul- 
locks, a large stream continually flowing into the reser- 
voirs and from there out into the fields in which Ram- 
abai has large fruit plantations and vegetable gardens. 

" The Rescue Home here is by itself, and has seven- 
ty-five women now. They grind their own flour, do 
their own cooking, and have their own hospital. As I, 
entered their compound, I was surrounded by a com- 
pany of contented-looking women, all speaking to me 
at once and all trying to touch my hands. My heart 
was melted in pity for them. Some looked healthy 
and strong, and others were smitten with consumption, 
and others with still more dreadful diseases. I thought 
what a wonderful and broad salvation this is, to take 
in these low outcasts, and prepare a home of refuge for 



RESCUE WORK 167 

them, as well as for the respectable and moral. It be- 
ing the hour for prayer, they all sat down on the ground 
and commenced singing. Some of the older girls come 
in with Bibles — and one read a chapter ; another pray- 
ed. As I showed a kindly interest, eyes moistened and 
faces softened, and I thought how much might be done 
with a little sympathy. I felt that Jesus had been near." 
But to return to Ramabai's Report. She goes on 
to tell of a time of testing and trial in temporal sup- 
plies. " The storeroom was almost empty, and the 
saries of our girls and most of their blankets had 
turned into old rags — there was no money to buy new 
saries and blankets. But saries had been ordered from 
the cloth merchants, with the understanding that they 
were to take all back if by a certain date their bills were 
not paid ; not one of them, however, was touched. Grain 
and other necessities of life were not ordered for the 
month. Many people could not understand why I had 
to make certain changes in food, etc. But the Lord 
knew all about it. He let the trials come at certain 
times, and let the house and treasury be quite empty 
only to fill them again. He made me realize from time 
to time that His ' hand is not shortened, that it cannot 
save ; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.'^ No 
one was informed about the needs at times of trial; 
but according to the command of God^ all requests 
*Isa. lix. i. 'Phil. iv. 6. 



1 68 PANDIT A RAMABAl 

were made known to Him, and He did keep my mind 
in perfect peace in Christ, and sent help in His own 
good time, to buy not only grain, but saries and blan- 
kets, etc., for the old and new girls. 

" The work of rescuing girls went on and is still 
going on, in spite of all difficulties and trials ; for God 
m^kes it very plain to me from time to time, by re- 
moving obstacles when they come, that it is His will 
that this work should not be stopped until He Himself 
stops it. Agur's prayer^ is being answered in our case. 
We are not allowed too much or too little of food and 
clothing and other comforts. Moreover, the Lord is 
teaching our Christian girls to deny themselves a little 
for the sake of others, that they may meet the expenses 
of their Christian instruction and other church ex- 
penses. He sent us a message one day to give up one 
of our meals on Sundays to save money to feed the 
hungry and poor, and to help His work in other mis- 
sions. Most of the girls very cheerfully came forward 
with the request to cut off one of their meals on Sun- 
days, and the money thus saved has been used to feed 
the Lord's poor and to help on His work in other places. 

" The question of self-support of Indian Christian 
Churches is becoming a very serious one. The Indian 
Christians are very poor, it is true, and will not be able 
to pay the high salaries and bear the heavy expenses 

*Prov. XXX. 8, 9. 



RESCUE WORK 169 

of fashionable churches. But as Hindus neither they 
nor their parents looked to some other nation, or to the 
high priests, for the support of their temples and their 
priesthood. As Christians there is no reason why they 
should not train themselves and their children to deny 
themselves, and to systematic giving. The Lord show- 
ed me this was my opportunity to practise and teach 
what I believed; and I am very thankful to say that 
the experiment has proved to be a success, and the 
Lord's promise in Mai. iii. 10 has been literally fulfilled. 
Some of us perhaps give one-fiftieth or One-hundredth 
part of our income to the Church, and that too with 
great reluctance, and call it tithe ; but little realize that 
the tithe is no less than one-tenth of the whole; and 
that is the income tax God would have us give Him for 
His poor. If we give one-twentieth or fiftieth part and 
call it a tithe, or give very little with great reluctance, 
we are robbing God of His dues, and robbing ourselves 
of great blessings which He is eager to give us if we 
only accept them by fulfilling the conditions. This, 
to me, seems to be the true cause of the material pov- 
erty of the native Christian Church in India. We must 
not expect that God will give us many spiritual and 
temporal blessings unless we cheerfully fulfill the con- 
ditions on which He has promised them to us." 

Ramabai concludes her most interesting recital of 
the condition and growth of this wonderful work with 



170 



PANDITA RAMABAI 



a paragraph which will do equally well for the close of 
this volume ; and here we must leave her. 

" God gave me a special message from His Word a 
few days ago to give all the friends who are help- 
ing the Lord's work at Mukti and other missions, which 
I pass on to you. It is this : * He that giveth unto 
the poor shall not lack.' ^ You have denied yourself in 
many ways for the sake of giving money for the poor 
women and children sheltered in our homes, but you 
have this rich promise from the Lord as your reward. 
God bless you all. As for me, I have His sure word 
to depend upon. ' He that spared not His own Son, 
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with 
Him also freely give us all things ? ' Now, * Unto 
Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
God, and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion 
for ever and ever. Amen.* " 

*Prov. xxviii. 27. 



OCT 22 1900 



